


the stars in the sky are freckles too

by miyarintarou



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Light Angst, M/M, Mystery, Post-Time Skip, Pre-Time Skip, Romance, a little amount of blood but nothing to heavy, this is just me promoting my osayama agenda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24084361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miyarintarou/pseuds/miyarintarou
Summary: Tadashi liked Osamu. Osamu liked Tadashi. It was a weird connection colliding like two galaxies merging in one, separated by a simple volleyball court. Yamaguchi chose giving up on a once in a lifetime crush. Miya chose to avoid the obvious chances the world was giving him to talk to Yamaguchi. It was a dead end, for both at least. But it was funny. Even if the world chose to give up on them, the stars decided it was not the end. And that's how Yamaguchi got the call, a few years later."Yamaguchi-kun, would you like to be Osamu Miya-san's date next friday?"
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Miya Atsumu, Hirugami Sachirou/Hoshiumi Kourai, Kita Shinsuke/Ushijima Wakatoshi, Miya Osamu/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 14
Kudos: 83





	1. different kind of galaxies collide every minute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I should end my other stories. But OsaYama is just,,,,,,,,,, OSAYAMA

**_It was him. It was definitely him._ **

It wasn't as if the brown-haired man was dying to run at full speed to that rather flashy-looking store, pass over other customers, and ask about all sorts of onigiri right then and there arranged at the large counter just to strike up a conversation with that man. Nor did it seem that he preferred to do the opposite, staying out of the situation because of everything that had happened to him that day since he had woken up, and not risking talking to that man with hair now as dark as night, brown eyes like wet wood and a refreshing, milk-white face.

But for Yamaguchi Tadashi all that was just one more problem in his enormous menu of afflictions that accompanied him in his daily life. And he was sure that talking to that man was just a small insignificant branch in a huge tree that has other, more important things to take care of.

And so he came closer. So he gathered all the courage he had stored in his little box deep in his heart, and started walking.

Those kinds of reactions were interesting coming from Yamaguchi, because he had always been the type of boy who stayed out of any situation that made his life complex; because he had always been the type to hide behind someone else's shadow, especially if that someone else was a person with whom he had already created a strong friendship; Because he was used to doing things only once: a single magnificent serve in volleyball, once captain, once graduated, once best friend. And, curiously and for the interest of those who are about to read this story, love was also one.

_Unfortunately for some, for the happiness of a few, Yamaguchi Tadashi could only fall in love once._

**_And that was something that Osamu Miya would soon discover._ **

" ** _The stars are also small freckles that adorn the night sky when no one is watching, or perhaps when everyone is doing it_** " was what Osamu Miya, sixteen years old, had thought when his gaze slid quickly from the shot to the ball that his twin brother placed for him to the bench of substitutes in which the boy were sitting who minutes earlier had collected a couple of points for his own team thanks to his striking serves, the same ones that Osamu had not stopped observing since that boy opened his eyes, a few meters away, separating them, running head-on, throwing the ball into the air, jumping, hitting the ball, everything. Absolutely everything. It was almost as if a strange aura shone around him, an aura crying out for the attention of everyone present in that place.

An aura that was curiously calm and that demanded quite the opposite. ‘ _Don't look at me_ ’ heard Osamu rumble in his mind, contradicting himself. How not to look? How can I look away from what is crying for me to look at it? What am I supposed to do in a situation like this? He was distracted, and it seemed that even the irritating voice of his twin brother couldn't bring him back in the midst of such an important game. Until the coach asked for time, which brought Osamu's attention from that boy on the bench back to his teammates, including his brother.

"His serve seems impressive, but they're just trash, don't ya think?" Atsumu released from his mouth as usual, and this time Osamu didn't return any comment. His attention was completely focused on the little brown dots on the whole face of that boy. "Samu, are you alright?" tried to call Atsumu, who stood next to him, looking in the direction of what his brother was seeing, and a small smile appeared on his lips when he noticed what had his brother breathing for something other than volleyball. "Hey, I don't blame ya for wanting to pay attention to everythin' cute on the other side of the court, but lemme remind ya that I'm talkin to you and that I exist"

"Shut up, idiot," Osamu finally answered, moving from his brother to get a little closer to the other side of the court, taking a closer look at that constellation of stars just a few steps away.

And that's when the night turned into a day. A small smile appeared on the boy's lips as he quickly extended a bottle of water to Karasuno number 11, and that he received without saying a word before sitting next to him, the other one still with his smile shining in his direction. Osamu sighed, and turned his gaze back to where his team was, trying to clear his mind to focus on the match. It was daylight, and the stars seemed to shine only for the one who had his full attention.

Somehow he felt defeated and somewhat confused. It was normal to think that those stars would shine for the person they wanted, but he was sure that someone somewhere in the world had said that stars also shine for those who are interested in them. Or maybe he was that person, trying to convince himself that the stars would shine in his direction if he looked at them long enough. That his attention would take on a life of its own and run over the heads of all those people who didn't matter at that time, and they would call out for him.

The curious thing was that what Osamu tried to name after his convenience, was something that had been doing its hard work for thousands, perhaps millions of years, and that at that very moment it was doing its thing again so that the stars will jump from admiring the moon to admiring the dark Earth turning slowly towards a new day. Yamaguchi disappeared his smile when he noticed that the brown-haired boy stopped looking at him, and then looked down somewhat disappointed. It wasn't as if he was waiting for Inarizaki's number 11 to pay attention to him every minute, perhaps every second of that match, but one way or another it made him slightly sad to think that what he longed for so much could not happen. His gaze jumped from the court to the sweaty face of his best friend, who just closed his eyes, probably reading both the environment and the situation before choosing the words he would say to a distracted Tadashi.

"Did Miya-san got your attention?" he released without opening his eyes. Yamaguchi's cheeks reddened completely, betraying his entire small and insignificant existence in front of the blonde, who only limited himself to drawing a small victorious smile on his lips, and adjusted his sports glasses with a small push towards the bridge of his nose. "His serve seems impressive, but it's just trash," he continued, and Yamaguchi's blush disappeared completely, trying to stifle a laugh inside his throat. That had been dangerously close. Or maybe it was never far away. "Yours are much better, if that's what you want me to say"

"Tsukki..." he dared to say, knowing that he couldn't expect more from his best friend. He smiled, and turned his gaze to the ground, Tsukishima jumping from his seat to return to the court. As soon as the blond disappeared out of the limits of Yamaguchi's concentration as far as Osamu was the matter, the brown-haired man looked up at him, who seemed to have listened to fate, looking up at the stars.

And they were more than sure that everything had started there. That day Karasuno won the match against Inarizaki, Yamaguchi giving Osamu one last look before concentrating on what was happening a few meters away, Osamu's twin brother stating with a strangely deep voice, that he would set the ball for Hinata as soon as the opportunity appears. It was funny since Hinata seemed to be completely lost in trying to determine which of the twins was the one speaking to him, while Atsumu swallowed all the pride he ever had to utter such words. It was also funny because, behind Atsumu, Osamu averted his gaze from the freckled boy seconds before he managed to see him again. What was as funny as it was serious was that Yamaguchi seemed to forget, with every second that passed, the older's eyes, which caused an immense desire to see him again grow inside him. It didn't take long for Yamaguchi to name it, although completely denying its existence, and he decided that what he longed for now grew inside him as if it were a useless and annoying fern, and continued to grow and grow until the following year, when his team and Osamu's met again in the national tournament.

This time, fate seemed to have been more interested than themselves in what could happen if they decided to get closer to each other. The stars didn't lose their complete attention towards Earth's darkness for anything in the world, and Earth had spent an entire year looking for nightfall again for the stars to pay attention to him. Of that battle not much is known, more than Osamu's team won, and even right there, at the end of the match, Osamu saw Yamaguchi again, who only dared to dedicate a small smile to him, hoping that the dark Earth would keep satisfied for the rest of its life. Because the Earth not only looked at the stars, but also had to carefully observe the Moon being engulfed by the arms of the stars.

And that was the end for the dark. That last year of high school, that last volleyball tournament, that last smile only announced a sad end for the Earth that just wanted to watch the stars. While Osamu knew the stupid meaning of the stars smiling so brilliantly, he also knew that there was no point in getting behind the stars' decisions. They had chosen the Moon, and there was nothing more to do but ignore the fact that fate had been as cruel as it has sometimes -or perhaps always- liked to be. However, and that is something that even his own brother knew clearly, Osamu was someone who was not going to give up in any way, which led him to make decisions a year later. Already graduated and accompanied by both his brother and his old teammates, sitting in the stands of that huge gymnasium was a piece of cake. The match was about to start, and his eyes lit up completely as that black and orange team lined up at their respective spot on the court, especially since first and shining as always, Yamaguchi Tadashi was smiling at his opponents, probably waiting to make that battle one of the best.

"Osamu, are you here?" Suna asked, to which Osamu just nodded, and squeezed Suna's hand in an attempt to make him understand that he was with him. Suna just smiled, and rested his head on his boyfriend's shoulder, who did the same with his on Suna's head, inhaling the sweet aroma of shampoo that he himself had recommended.

It was one lie after another. He was never there, and Suna probably knew that perfectly well. It wasn't as if the black-haired man cared too much since what was happening between him and his former classmate and teammate was purely and exclusively casual sex in which no one felt anything for the other. However, those words also brought with them a small trap, and that was that although neither felt something for the other, Suna knew that Osamu felt something for someone else. And that someone was, at that very moment, about to play a volleyball game.

And it wasn't as if the others were interested. Atsumu was there just to see the progress of "his little project for the future", that boy with orange hair who at the time was wearing number 5, and who managed to set Atsumu's face on fire as soon as he got a little closer from normal to number 2, vice captain and team setter, Kageyama Tobio. Hitoshi was on the other side, typing quickly on his phone, probably texting wildly to his boyfriend, Akagi, another of their former teammates and senior. Suna was playing a video game for his phone that he downloaded the night before after Osamu completely denied having sex, occasionally looking up at the black-haired one, noting that his attention was completely focused on that freckled brown-haired boy.

"Oh no..." Osamu whispered after a few minutes after the game ended, Karasuno losing just in the semifinals. Suna lifted his head from his boyfriend's shoulder, and Osamu got up from his seat, running desperately towards the bathrooms. Suna sighed, and turned his attention to his cell phone, knowing that nothing made any sense if he tried to give it to it.

**_It was more than obvious who he wanted to visit._ **

"Are you really going to let him go?" Atsumu whispered as the orange-haired man disappeared through the huge doors of the gym, indicating to the rest of the audience that the attention that the blonde could put to something other than his own interests and volleyball was over. "You used to say that you were stupidly in love with him and now... this" he completed his comment, perhaps a little out of place, perhaps with the intention of showing his interest in his friend and brother.

Rintaro shook his head from side to side, denying. " _If you love someone, let them go_... Or at least that's what they say. _I'm sure he is in love with that boy_. _The sparkle in his eyes_ …” he commented, raising his head towards the court, his eyes finding that man with hair as dark as his walking towards the direction where the redhead and the freckled one had disappeared. "... ** _it's the same one that was in mine when I used to look at him in high school_** "

Suna's situation as far as Osamu is concerned has always been somewhat complicated, but perhaps it is irrelevant at this very moment. Perhaps it was more important to talk about the way Osamu, the bravest of the Miya brothers, closed his eyes a few meters before meeting for the first time in two years face to face with the freckled boy who dominated his mind, his dreams and illusions and his words from his first confrontation. Doubt was present between what fate could give them as a happy couple and how much the darkness wanted to enjoy watching the stars in silence without being part of their calm existence, that at that very moment they were somewhat rowdy. Desperate. Terrified.

**_Yamaguchi Tadashi was crying._ **

Osamu sighed, and asked his knees to move in the direction of that boy, unsuccessfully forcing his arms to wrap around him, punishing his lips for not having the courage to whisper a few simple words of encouragement. He was stupid, a coward, and he felt like the worst person for just turning around and getting out of there, still listening to the faint sob of the stars asking for someone's arms. It was funny, as expected, how fate liked to be cruel when someone else had done something that it hadn't planned, and it laughed at how things could go wrong when it didn't put its hands on fire to make something happen, and Yamaguchi was just the proof of that.

‘ _I... I can't keep dating you, Yamaguchi. I'm sorry_ ' were the words that Tsukishima had used to completely end the relationship that he himself had started minutes after Karasuno lost against Inarizaki two years earlier, and that it had been Yamaguchi himself who had been in charge of keeping afloat of Thousands of possible ways, looking in some way or another to feel accompanied by someone. Dear, beloved, being someone in the world for that special person. He felt like a complete idiot, and while everyone else present would take his crying in the middle of the hallways of that huge gym as “normal” because they had lost their last national tournament as a high school volleyball team, he could treat himself to cry over what Tsukishima had said.

He also couldn't blame him. He himself had grown tired of making thousands of mistakes in their relationship, including not taking his eyes off the brown-haired man during their games, saying his name without even thinking about it, or even mistaking it for Tsukishima's. He knew that those and probably other things were what the blonde was accumulating until he could no longer stand and mercilessly murder every attempt by Yamaguchi to have him by his side. He was being fair, and perhaps those tears that he was shedding at that moment were more than valid.

**_However, why did he feel like such an idiot?_ **

Why did he feel as if they had shamelessly played with his feelings like a volleyball ball? Why did he feel that he should hate Tsukishima with all his might, to the point of wanting to wrap his fingers around his neck and press enough to finish off all the air that could flow through both his throat and his veins? Why did he feel like he wanted to run at top speed to where the brown-haired man was and hug him to never let go, telling him everything he had felt during those two years, probably kissing his lips until they turned as red as blood, feeling his scent until his lungs were filled with only Osamu Miya?

_Why did he feel like everything was going wrong?_

Fate seemed to cool its hands as the fire burned inside Yamaguchi, who raised his head, his eyes still full of tears, and found the back of that dream that chased him incessantly for every second, every minute, every hour of all those countless nights when Osamu reigned in his mind and, of course, his first instinct was to run. The stars on his cheeks looked like shooting stars leaping from his face into the air with his tears, which he wiped with one of his hands before reaching that huge door through which he entered more than once during all those matches, and opened it. The cold, the emotions, the tears, all mixed into one thing, slamming into the boy's soft white skin, which felt time stop, space writhe, and that little fire come out of him to fall into the hands of fate that smiled as Yamaguchi's heart lost all trace of hope.

" _Osamu-san_!" he screamed, drowning his own voice deep inside his lungs at the imposing and unrecognizable image of the boy, now black hair, kissing the lips of another, who seemed to smile victoriously in a battle he never fought. It was more than obvious that the dark Earth would hear this, but wouldn't find the stars staring at him.

On the contrary, the door was closed. Time ran again, perhaps without a specific meaning. Space returned to its original place, this time with a completely gray color. And Yamaguchi's heart turned into something frozen. Little tears ran down his cheeks as he hugged both his legs tightly, trying to contain both his anger and rage and his own stupidity.

**_Everything lost its meaning._ **

_Two too different galaxies tried to collide, and their difference in distances had told them no._

But now... now it was different. Fate was not laughing. Time was running normally. The space had been in its normal place for years. Yamaguchi's heart had become as warm as it had ever been. And something inside told him that sense took its place in all that tangle of emotions and feelings.

**_Hope called him to be happy._ **

And that's why he decided to turn around, and disappear. One step, two steps, three steps. Yamaguchi's figure disappeared among all that infinite number of people, far from the sight of Osamu, far from the sight of happiness, far from everything.

_But of course, never so far from the smile of fate._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you reached here, thank you for reading! This is my new OsaYama fic that would probably be long, hope it works. If you didn't understand anything, please feel free to ask me in the comments/sending me a dm on Twitter! I had so much fun writing this because it literally appeared out of nowhere from night to day and now it's here. It kinda gave me back my writing wishes tbh. So I really hope y'all like this!
> 
> Special thanks to Sha for being my spanish beta reader even if she speaks english 24/7, and special thanks to her again for being my partner in crime in this thing called OsaYama ugh I lOVE THEM SO F******* MUCH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
> 
> -Adiós, Nico.


	2. stars never forget what Earth does.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The stars like to tell what they see... They saw Yamaguchi Tadashi feeling love, they saw Osamu Miya being afraid of that love, and they saw destiny playing with them.
> 
> And they kept writing...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided I'll be updating this fic bi-weekly lol  
> I can't believe I actually wrote chapter two! But hope you like it! See y'all in two weeks :D

**_The stars like to tell what they see._ **

Some of them enjoy the romance that can grow between two simple humans; others, the magnificent and powerful horror that the end of one of those romances can provoke. Some prefer to sigh, moving from side to side to visualize the earth spinning at full speed when the ones in motion are themselves. A small group farther from Earth enjoys seeing their sisters laugh mischievously at the stories they witness, and the rest, beyond where an entire galaxy can contain, are those that hide from the sight of the human eye.

And then there's the group of stars that Yamaguchi carried with him, a loving and kind boy of twenty-two years old, brown hair and brown eyes with shades of dark green, that shone differently with each summer, each winter, each autumn and each spring that his heart was beating. No one knows exactly when that group of stars had decided to follow that boy's story, but the person who saw his freckles for the first time had said, with a warm smile, that his freckles were like stars. And that was a story Yamaguchi had grown tired of hearing, and it was the same one for which he always rebuked his mother for reminding him of such an embarrassing moment, even if he was unaware of it.

What he did know was that these stars existed, and he wondered if his freckles would ever take the shape of them, almost as bright as the sun but so far from reality to visualize them as the red giant in the center of the galaxy. His freckles were, in effect, the 'defect of his face' that had always made him complex. No one ever complained about those marks on his cheeks, but there was something, perhaps someone, perhaps himself, that from the depths of his mind always repeated the same words: 'Your freckles are ugly', 'Nobody loves your freckles' and 'You will never be happy with those freckles', and another endless number of insults that were repeated like a damaged disc. Tadashi knew that all this was quite offensive to himself, and that it was more than clear that there was no point in thinking about it, but without looking for it and without asking for it, it took shape when he took off his shirt, exposing his white skin full of thousands of points, each one with different sizes. Small, large, medium; two, three, four points in a row; some formed figures; others, at last, existed as if some kind of torture to the poor mind of the boy was intended.

_They were stars. Horrible and useless stars._

Stars that, during the winter, were kept off to make room for his eyes to shine. That day was special. Perhaps, more than special. That day was unique in history. That day, two of his best friends, former high school classmates and volleyball teammates would meet again, both on different professional teams, for a game. For all the other people who were going to be in that place it was just a simple volleyball game- with the addition that, according to rumors, 'the generation of monsters' created during the high school days from Yamaguchi and his friends would be the participants of said party-, but for Yamaguchi and a few other people, it was the final battle.

The confrontation between Hinata Shouyou and Kageyama Tobio, the match that would define their eternal rivalry. Funny? Maybe. Intense? More than clear. Important? Not at all. Not at least for Yamaguchi's stars, who were muffled and silent under the various winter garments the boy had decided to wear. Tadashi just smiled and found his best friend among all the people, to whom he offered a warm hug despite having seen her a week before, the night of the day that Hinata Shouyou returned from Brazil, country to where he decided to migrate to polish his volleyball skills as soon as his high school life ended. The blonde began to speak, stealing an occasional smile from the freckled, who listened carefully to what his friend was saying. Tadashi had never been too good at creating conversations, and that's why, from a young age, he chose to listen. And he was, perhaps, very good at it.

_Until he noticed him._

Every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every month, every year of all his damn high school blatantly revived from the depths of his stomach, mixing everything he hadn't eaten in days, making the boy cover his mouth. Yachi stopped talking, braking hard in front of Yamaguchi, who only gasped, and ran towards the bathrooms, closely followed by a worried blonde. Every possible conversation between the freckled and the blonde was left in the air when Yamaguchi locked himself in one of the cubicles for ten minutes, letting his stomach empty what little he had ingested, and then left the bathrooms repeating to himself the words that then he would say out loud to the blonde.

"Osamu Miya is here, Hitoka" he whispered, the blonde's skin vibrating upon hearing that name that seemed to have disappeared from all his vocabulary after Yamaguchi called her crying one day at three in the morning to tell him how much he missed 'something he never had'. "My mind... My mind is blank. I don't know what to do” he finished, his hands trembling wildly.

"Oh my God. Calm down for a moment, Yamaguchi-kun. How sure are you that it was him?” the girl asked, a little more nervous than the brunette could ever be. Yamaguchi took a deep breath, and pointed his index finger at the small onigiri store a few meters away from them, where the dark-haired boy smiled warmly at all his customers. "Wow, this... This is too inconvenient..."

“I... I want to get out of here. I need to get out of here” Yamaguchi whispered without letting Yachi finish his sentence. The blonde took a deep breath, and took one of the boy's hands to guide him as they walked to the stands, where Tsukishima was waiting for them.

It didn't take long for the girl to find the blonde, who only raised his right hand as soon as he spotted them at one of the doors. Yamaguchi was taking a deep breath every few seconds, looking for a way to eliminate the memory of that bright smile a few meters from him, his soft white skin just in sight and the muscles of his arms, chest and back widen and relax when he breathed.

Bad idea.

"Are you okay? You're trembling and completely red” commented Tsukishima, who returned Yamaguchi to the earth when he raised his head to find the blonde's eyes staring at him. Tadashi opened his mouth to speak, but his blush completely invaded his face, betraying that whatever was going through his head at that moment was something that everyone present preferred to avoid knowing.

"I'm fine, don't worry" he replied after a few seconds in silence. Tsukishima shrugged without blinking, and turned his attention back to the volleyball court, leaving Yamaguchi to wander in the solitude of his own thoughts.

He wasn't okay. He wasn't okay, he wasn't okay, he wasn't okay. His heart was jumping in fucking joy. His mind was sunk deep in a sea of emotions that had first and last name, feeling as if he was fifteen again. He felt happiness, he felt horror, he felt disgust, he felt fear. He felt those millions of things that were what shaped him as the person he was. His body was trembling, perhaps from cold, perhaps from those feelings; while his face seemed to redden more with each passing second. He felt that he was not present at the time. He had a huge, stupid urge to smile. He wanted to remember Osamu Miya's face forever. But, above all, and that was something that fate had more than prepared, the stars shining inside his stomach indicated that he was feeling something much stronger than all the hurricane that had formed inside him.

**_Yamaguchi Tadashi felt love._ **

And it wasn't just any passing love. It wasn't stupid butterflies flying desperately back and forth in his stomach, much less could he say he walked in the clouds every time he thought of the black-haired one. No, that was completely different. His love was sour. It was a drop of acid mixed with a glass of lemon juice. It was something that no one in his right mind would dare to take, but that right now was sliding down Yamaguchi's throat as his best friends fought intensely a few meters from their position. Many people said that love has no expiration date, but Tadashi refused to believe that. The acidity of his love continued its race to his stomach, which exploded in a powerful roar, followed by a dizzy Yamaguchi disappearing from there into the bathroom, this time completely emptying his stomach. As he could he got to the sinks of that bathroom, and raised his eyes to find his face in the mirror.

Wow, the power of love. "Damn..." he whispered, wetting both his face and his mouth, and then looked back at himself in the mirror, closing his eyes somewhat terrified at not recognizing himself in what he was seeing. He was terrified.

_It was exactly the same as when he was seventeen._

**_Only this time he could control it._ **

"Are ya 'kay?" were the first words that Osamu Miya said to Yamaguchi Tadashi when they met. Looking directly into each other's eyes. Appreciating each other as close as they had always wanted. Feeling each other's warmth for just standing less than a meter away.

And those were the words that told Yamaguchi that this time, just like any other that might ever happen in his life, he couldn't control it either.

And that's why he escaped.

* * *

Osamu Miya has never been afraid. People tended to compare him to his brother, saying that if something happened to one or one of them was good at something, the opposite would happen to the other or the other would be good at something completely different. But they were all completely wrong. There were endless things that both Atsumu and Osamu were good at, including volleyball, and they both liked to joke about dressing up as the other, because one way or anoter, "some fool would end up falling for their performances."

But you can't act fear. The one that ties your hands and legs to a non-existent chair to protect you from something that cannot harm you, the one that unleashes a hurricane of despair inside your body, pushing your mind to the limit, the one that only one of the twins had experienced until his first year of high school, in which the other felt his brother's fear build up in his neck until he felt it, as alive as if it were his own. And it was strange, because while he refused to admit it, the fear was his. You can't name something you never experienced because, in effect, you have never felt it, ending in denial.

But that day, that damn day, Osamu had finally felt the despair of being terrified. And, although it took many years to finally understand it, his fear was rooted in a feeling almost as soft and perfect that made him touch the clouds, but that in fact was as macabre and terrifying as fear, and that in a short time it devoured him completely.

**_Osamu Miya was afraid of love._ **

Interesting, right? People were afraid of many things. Spiders, thunders, loneliness, the infinity and the mystery of a space that hasn't been fully known, the odd animal larger than them, the list was endless. And yet Osamu was afraid of love. It chased him day and night, claiming him for an unjust and baseless fear he accepted as normal, completely ignoring it before it could defend himself. Love had grown tired of knocking on his door, but Osamu stopped living in that house, taking the necessary measures so that the key that opened the lock of that door was perfectly hidden.

But this time, after getting tired, love gave way to fate, which continued to do its work in silence, hiding from love that it was going to do justice for him.

“C'mon, it'lll be fun... You can come with us and bring yer partner" Atsumu's words slipped over Osamu's ears, who finished preparing the huge onigiri that his brother had asked him to make. "Shouyou-kun was very excited after winnin' today's match, and I don't wanna disappoint my new little spiker so quickly, 'Samu," he pleaded this time, his eyes slightly watery on purpose, waiting for his brother to eat his verses, as usual. Osamu just smiled. "C'mon, _or do ya have no partner?_ "

_Fuck._

"Of course I have one, you idiot,” blurted out Osamu, and covered his mouth the next second. He turned his back on his brother, who seemed to have been more than delighted with the food he had prepared for him, and felt a small click, a lock unlocking and the knob of a door pressing to open it resonate in his mind.

Fuck. _Fuck. **Fuck.**_

“I'm focused 'nough on the simple fact that I'm gonna have a date with Hinata Shouyou to momentarily ignore yer hiding from me, not askin' 'bout that mysterious person and congratulating you on findin' someone who took yer virginity” Atsumu was spitting poison, although Osamu knew that this was his brother's way of showing his happiness and affection. Osamu turned around again, his brain still sunk in the depth of that sea that he hadn't bothered to investigate yet. “I'm intrigued tho. Who're they? Are they someone I know? Don't tell me! It's that boy from Karasuno... The one with the garbage serve..."

And then his brain returned to the surface.

Silence reigned in the void of the store, Atsumu feeling his blood freeze just as his appetite disappeared. He screwed up, and screwed up enough for Osamu to end up staring at him, blaming him for something they both knew no one could be guilty about. Atsumu wiped his mouth with the small napkin his brother gave him, preferring to look directly at the remains of his onigiri while whispering an inaudible ''m sorry', knowing that he touched a sensitive spot that hadn't been brought to life since that fateful day when Osamu Miya decided to be happy with anything that didn't include love.

Yamaguchi Tadashi, over time, became a taboo name among the Miya brothers. The night Osamu ended his relationship with Suna, Osamu revealed his brother that he had never been in love with the black-haired one, and that while everything between them seemed like pink, the truth behind Osamu's intentions were more than dark, and Atsumu understood almost instantly what his brother had tried to do. He couldn't blame him, since he himself told him a year before he and Suna started dating that he couldn't get that freckled face out of his mind, that no matter how hard he tried, it wasn't successful. That said, Suna would be just a simple replacement for the love that Osamu was looking for in Yamaguchi, the love he feared so much, while he had no idea that it would hurt him in that way. That night, a storm in between, Osamu slept hugging his brother, who only caressed his hair while whispering that everything would be fine, that perhaps this wasn't his time to have a partner, that perhaps in the future his dream of being with Yamaguchi would come true, a thousand and one wishes for something impossible at his fingertips.

And the next morning, Yamaguchi Tadashi disappeared from Osamu's vocabulary.

At first Atsumu struggled against his own logic, trying to find an answer to his brother's sudden change, and it was then that he remembered that strange electric current that ran through his spine when Osamu returned crying the night before. He remembered feeling tied to his own bed, sweating cold, a metallic taste like blood filling his mouth. He remembered feeling terrified. He remembered that what he had felt was not his. And then he understood, completely burning the name of the freckled from his mind.

Until that stupid moment. Atsumu felt oddly out of place, but he also wanted to feel that the situation could be reversed. Among all the repertoire of comforting words he had said to his brother amidst a shower of rumblings was the ones he repeated the most, and that was that his future with Yamaguchi perhaps existed. That he could perhaps take it with his own hands. And he hoped that now those words would come true. Although in the end it was silly. Osamu ended up smiling at him, nodding as he grabbed his things and stretched out his legs one last time before looking his brother in the eyes and smiling back at him.

"So Friday, seven o'clock?" Atsumu asked one last time, Osamu nodding. The blonde smiled again, and left the store, but not before greeting his brother with a small wave of his hand, Osamu doing the same.

And Atsumu disappeared, leaving Osamu with his heart pounding uncontrollably. He dropped into the small chair just behind the counter, closing his eyes. It had been an extremely long day, and while everything seemed relatively fine, Osamu would have liked to tell his brother not to worry about naming that freckled boy who had been on his mind every second since that afternoon, and that perhaps it has been there forever.

Osamu Miya had seen Yamaguchi Tadashi again. There were millions of reasons why he could calmly ask Hinata for his number, send him a message, and start a beautiful friendship that could quickly become a beautiful love. A nice apartment, a nice dog, a nice life where he woke up every morning with those freckles shining in the sun while he just admires them, feeling the happiest person in the world.

But there were also a million reasons why all of that could happen in the opposite way. A horrible heartbreak in which Yamaguchi doesn't love him. A horrible life in a horrible and lonely apartment where he woke up every morning completely alone, with no freckles shining at his side as if they were stars.

**_That, in fact, was Osamu's fear._ **

" _Yamaguchi Tadashi..._ " he whispered, taking his cell phone, feeling his hands tremble with each movement of his fingers. There were millions of reasons why all this could happen, but that same afternoon something different happened. Something important, so much that it was enough for Osamu's fear to be on the other side of the door, and what entered his life was only destiny.

**_The stars on Tadashi's face told him not to be afraid._ **

And pressed call.

" _Hello? Shouyou-kun?_ ” Osamu spoke, and a small smile appeared on the lips of fate.

* * *

The body of the freckled man fell into his bed after long hours in which he debated between apologizing to his friends for having so blatantly escaped from the game without warning, choosing what to eat after so many hours without doing it, taking a bath and feeling the most coward person in the world. He picked up his phone and unlocked it, finding thousands of messages, including from his college classmates, Tsukishima, Yachi, and Hinata. Especially from Hinata. One thousand two hundred messages. Exactly.

And the call came in, which Yamaguchi knew he couldn't ignore. He felt a chill run down his spine as his fingers moved towards the screen, everything remaining extremely silent when he pressed accept and brought his phone to his ear.

" ** _Yamaguchi-kun, do you want to be Osamu Miya-san's date this Friday at seven?_ "**

That night, Yamaguchi felt his heart, the world, time, everything around him stop. And for some reason, his freckles were glowing.

_The stars, for their part, wrote in their diary..._


	3. the stars are writing a story.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleepless nights, a failed attempt to have a date and a proposal that wanted to rewrite the story they never got to write. Stars are always looking for the best plots for their stories, and Osamu and Yamaguchi had one of the best under their noses...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henlooooooooooo! I finally was able to fulfill one of my promises and wrote a chapter two weeks after the last one, I can't believe this is happening but we're here! Hope you like it :D
> 
> This chapter's song is "Strangers" by Sigrid.

_He didn't know Osamu Miya. He had absolutely no idea who that person was._

**_They were complete strangers._ **

And yet there he was, pretending to be his longtime lover. Lover who, above all else, had been hidden from the eyes of his twin brother. It was strange to remember the hours before the happy date, at least for Yamaguchi, but the stars love to tell what they see. And this time, everything is as important as what is so insignificant to humans.

_Because everything is a detail for their book._

"With whom?!" Tadashi exclaimed, mixing his words with his breath escaping from his mouth and suddenly returning to his lungs. He could feel Hinata move away from his phone a little because of his voice. One more little slip before the end of the day.

"Osamu Miya, Guchi" replied the other, shaking Yamaguchi's column. Shit. "O, S, A, M, U, M, I, Y, A. Osamu Miya. Miya Osamu. The twin of… A-Atsumu-san ”added Hinata in the silence, painting Yamaguchi's cheeks with a slight pink. And a small smile on his lips. "Come on, the man of your dreams—"

"I know who he is ... O-Osamu Miya, Sho" Yamaguchi finally replied, his face as red as lava. And it was unfair, because he could hear Hinata's laughter on the other end of the line. "I don't understand what you're making fun of, sir _I-can't-stop-thinking-about-Atsumu-Miya_ " and dropped onto his bed, smiling as he felt his best friend blush just like him. He appreciated the silence for a few seconds, before feeling the other's ragged breathing. "Hinata?"

"He... He told me that... He also couldn't stop thinking a-about me," he revealed, to which Yamaguchi just smiled, sitting up suddenly. His heart raced for a moment, and he couldn't help but feel really happy for his friend. "He wants us to have a date this Friday. He wants me to tell him what happened all these years in Brazil. _He is interested in me, Guchi_ , ”he continued, stealing a new smile from Yamaguchi thanks to his ability to pronounce twenty words in a matter of seconds. He was excited, and it wasn't for less. "So I need you to be Osamu-san's date... please?"

Yamaguchi sighed, and the smile disappeared from his lips. "Hmmm... Did you know that you're not going to convince me by putting your lost child's voice on the phone?" he asked, and heard Hinata sigh defeated on the other side. He dropped back onto his bed, smiling. "I... I'm going to think about it, okay? I want… I want to think about it” and Hinata smiled. Yamaguchi could feel it.

"Yes!" exclaimed the orange haired one, this time being Yamaguchi the one who moved his phone away from his ear. And he smiled again. "I will send you Osamu-san's store address along with his contact, you can ask him if you ever get lost," Hinata explained, and in one way or another Yamaguchi's phone vibrated, making the brown-haired man understand that the messages had come in. Hinata was definitely a complete mystery. "Please think about it, but I'm sure at the end of the day you'll want to go. _When have you rejected something related to Osamu Miya?_ ”

Yamaguchi bit his lower lip, and was silent for a couple of minutes, long enough for Hinata to reproach him for escaping before his match ended, Yamaguchi preferring to keep what had happened that same morning to him, even knowing that his best friend could kill him if he found out about that. Yamaguchi smiled, and wished Hinata a good night before ending the call and setting his phone aside, closing his eyes for a moment and letting himself go.

Damn Hinata. Damn the time when he decided to be his best friend. Damn the time when he decided to trust his with all his secrets. Damn the moment Hinata decided to lock them up inside of him. Damn him for letting himself be carried away by a friendship. But above all things, and that was a key for the stars, damn the time when time stopped for Yamaguchi to appreciate Osamu. Half of everything was history that Hinata himself had been responsible for erasing so that Yamaguchi didn't feel the same pain that the orange-haired man felt on his chest that cold day after the game, that day when he found him crying inconsolably at the door of the gym. Yamaguchi was devastated, and it took Hinata only half of all his emotions to understand what was happening to his friend. He remembers that Tsukishima asked him to change places with him –surprising the star of Karasuno, since his place was right next to Kageyama–, and he remembers hugging Yamaguchi until he fell asleep in his arms during the entire trip back to Miyagi, dedicating one of his warmest smiles when they separated, asking him to trust him, no matter whatever happened.

And there it had all started. Although Hinata knew that Yamaguchi was interested (perhaps too much) in the dark-haired one, he didn't have the slightest idea that his friend used to jump out of excitement every time he thought of him. It was... It was a lot of emotions so palpable and impossible to distinguish from a distance. The same emotions he had created little by little from the moment Atsumu Miya spoke to him. And he learned everything from Tadashi himself by the end of his third year, when Yamaguchi decided to sleep at Hinata's house the night before the orange-haired went to Brazil. He remembers hugging Yamaguchi again as he told him everything that had happened from the beginning, and he remembered advising Yamaguchi to try to forget Osamu if what he had seen at the end of Nationals was completely true. He remembers asking Yamaguchi to not stop talking to him while he was in Brazil, and he remembers swallowing his tears when he thought that the next morning he'd take a flight to Brazil, leaving his whole life in Japan to write an important chapter in his life, at least for him, because he didn't want to overshadow his best friend's moment of uncertainty and sadness.

_Even if the stars didn't know it, the sun was always going to be by their side._

And that moment was not for less. The first night of the remaining two for Friday was hell for Yamaguchi, who'd been with his eyes open every damn second of it. His eyes rolled up and down, running through all the stars glowing in the darkness of his room glued to his ceiling. One, two, three... Seventy-six... Two hundred and thirty-four... Five thousand five hundred and forty-four... And when the sun decided to come out and enlight his room he finally noticed that he was raving. That week he was free from any kind of studies, so he had more than enough time to shut himself up in his apartment, in a small dark corner, while he ate ice cream and tried to process the opportunity of his life that he could take with his hand.

**_He could date Osamu Miya._ **

Obviously, and for the rest of the universe, that was destiny's work. The damn fate. The one who, however, seemed to have been interested in anyone else before Yamaguchi, since everything was going too well. Thursday had arrived and he was still alive. Ironically. He hadn't slept in forty-eight hours. There was a complete mess. He was shaking, he ate too much ice cream, he thought and rethought and rethought the fact that the next day he could be face to face with Osamu. He thought that he had to slow down his heart because it would probably fall out of his chest, and he also thought that he had his number. He had Osamu Miya's damn number! Wednesday night had been purely and exclusively to watch for hours the profile photo of the black-haired man, which consisted of him in front of his store, smiling warmly at the camera.

_Damn... Damn smile._

And Thursday night was free to think what he wanted. The truth was there weren't many things the chestnut could think of, except for the famous and fully anticipated change of clothes. Yamaguchi sighed, and turned off his phone when the clock struck four in the morning, getting up from his bed and standing in front of his wardrobe, opening its doors wide. A million shirts, a million sweatshirts, one or another pair of sneakers and just one pair of jeans so old but at the same time so new because he never used them. Tadashi sighed even deeper, and took the jeans along with his pair of star sneakers. He rummaged through all of his sweatshirts until he found one light brown, his favorite, and tossed it all over his bed before turning back to where his shirts were. And he began to move his hand between each one of them.

"Where are you?" he asked, feeling that it was completely normal to be talking to that shirt that he was looking for at four AM in the silence of his room. "Damn it..." he whispered to himself, continuing his work of rummaging through the infinite collection of T-shirts, until, just at the end of the coat rack, shining because of its little use, he found it. "Bingo!"

It was, in short, the best shirt in the world. The part of the shoulders was a dark blue color, like the night sky, and it was degrading to the waist, where it became a light blue like the daytime sky. The entire chest was full of white dots, stars in the sky, and at the height of his heart was the small brand logo. A small white onigiri. Yamaguchi smiled, and a yawn flooded his mouth, sleep taking as much of his brain as of his body. He left the clothes he chose in the chair next to his desk and smiled at it before taking his phone, admiring the image of Osamu one last time before falling exhausted at the fatigue he was being accumulating.

  
The stars were laughing. Especially the sun. They were just dying of laughter. And Yamaguchi woke up, his cell phone ringing wildly because of a call. It took him a couple of minutes to regain consciousness, and he picked up his phone after letting it ring at least three more times. When the silence returned to the room he finally read the call notifications, and then looked at the time. And then he finished waking up.

_Damn._

"Yamaguchi? Are you coming? Are you going to disappoint me? Do you want to see Osamu Miya?” were the words Hinata said when Yamaguchi had deigned to answer his calls. After almost thirty missed calls. Yamaguchi didn’t answer, preferring to hear Hinata complain as he dressed at the speed of light. And the call was cut off, leaving Yamaguchi to prepare properly. He combed his hair the best he could and wet his face, trying to shake the fatigue off him. He sighed one last time before looking at himself in the mirror, searching for an answer to his own stupidity in the depth of his eyes. He never said yes to Hinata. Deep down he knew that saying yes was saying yes to himself. And that was a lie. A vile and malicious lie. He wanted to do it. Damn, he was desperate to do it. His greatest dream was at stake. It was all or nothing.

**_But he was scared._ **

And yet there he was. Standing at the door of the store of the man who stole each and every one of his breaths during high school. In front of him, admiring his figure, losing himself in his eyes, letting the tears slide down his throat as he swallowed them, because he wasn’t allowed to cry. There was no need. No sense. After all, he finally understood.

**_They were complete strangers.  
  
_ **

“ _Just like in the movies_  
 _It starts to rain and we_  
 _We're the broken beauties_  
 _Blindfolded minds collide and we fall_ ”

Thousands of questions ran through Yamaguchi's mind as time seemed to stand still when Osamu's eyes found his’. Questions that were never going to find answers, questions that had already been answered, questions that had inconclusive answers, and a question that could still find a more than clear answer. _How do you fall in love with someone who is a complete stranger?_

"Ya... Yamaguchi-kun" Osamu mentioned, breaking with the silence that Tadashi intended to maintain. The chestnut stared at the ground, feeling his face burn from just hearing his voice, focusing especially on the powerful echo that it generated when vibrations rumbled in the empty store. "What’re you doin’ here?" he asked, as if it was the most normal conversation in the world.

And Yamaguchi began to tremble. ‘ _Don't talk to me, don't talk to me, don't talk to me_ ’ he whispered in his mind, seeking to distract his own mind from hours without sleep because of a stupidity he never deigned to ask.

"Yamaguchi?" Osamu asked. Tadashi wanted to run away. He was seized with fear, and in less than a second a new question formed in his mind. _What am I about to do?_ And that was, in part, one of the many unanswered questions. "Are ya ‘kay?"

"I..." he finally said, Osamu approaching where he was, sure that the boy would fall in his place at any moment. "I’m... your d-date," he finished, hiding his face on the wooden floor, especially the blush that had been made on his cheeks by mentioning such words.

_What was happening?_

_“When the curtain drops  
Our touch is just a touch  
Not like in the movies  
Our story's after the end”_

The brunette was completely embarrassed, and didn’t raise his gaze from the ground until someone else entered the store, being Hinata the one who pushed him into the place, finally making their eyes collide again. And, to Yamaguchi's luck, Osamu was smiling.

_And Tadashi's mind went blank._

Things started to happen too fast, at least for Yamaguchi, who preferred to observe Osamu Miya's features by being so close to him rather than listen to the adventures of Hinata in Brazil that he already heard. Occasionally Osamu would smile, probably because of some stupidity on Hinata's part, and that's when Yamaguchi turned to Atsumu, hiding his blush in the blonde, who couldn't take his eyes off his best friend. For Yamaguchi, everything was silent, until Atsumu decided to open his mouth. And that's when the stars decided raise their ears, and listen carefully. Enough to start writing.

"And what about you, Yamaguchi-kun?" Atsumu asked, and everything in the air tensed. Especially Osamu, who forced his legs to hold still before looking at Hinata directly into his eyes for a thousandth of a second. "Do you know what ‘Samu saw in you? Did ya know he told me a lot ‘bout you? One night he wouldn’t let me sleep,” he added, before Yamaguchi exploded in his place. Atsumu smirked, and looked at Osamu before continuing, knowing that he was playing with fire. "The first thing he said about you was ' _I want to see his freckles shine_.' Who would’ve thought, my bro’s a hopeless romantic”

Yamaguchi, meanwhile, was melting. Everyone present could see him melting into steam escaping from his face, probably out of shame. Atsumu smiled, and then erased his smile as he felt his brother's slippers dig into his leg, a small tear leaking from his eye at such aggression. Hinata smiled, and punched Atsumu on the shoulder, earning a plaintive expression from the blonde.

“How come Samu kept you from me for so long anyway? I thought he was tellin’ me all ‘bout him, but it turns out he has a boyfriend,” said Atsumu, and with that, everything started to go on. What was happening? " _And the best part of all, his boyfriend is Yamaguchi-kun, his high school crush!_ "

Fuck Atsumu Miya. Fuck that quote. Fuck everything. What the fuck were the stars supposed to be writing? Yamaguchi felt his heart beat at unthinkable speeds as he shook his head from side to side, looking at Hinata, who was beating Atsumu to shut up, and then looking at Osamu, who was silent without being able to utter a word. He ended up staring at the ceiling, imagining that the stars in his room were there, shining, accompanying him in every moment of despair, letting him know that he was not alone.

_Until the stars inside him began to shine._

_“Like strangers…”_

He felt his body tremble slightly as he rose from his place, leaving everyone else silent, and ran from there, leaving an Atsumu with his mouth open, a Hinata trying to follow him and an Osamu asking him to stay, following Yamaguchi until he found him outside the store, breathing deeply.

_ “ Perfect pretenders… ” _

"Yamaguchi-kun?" Osamu asked, noticing that Tadashi's body started to shake just by saying his name. Yamaguchi took another deep breath, and turned to Osamu, smiling at him. "Sorry, I... didn't want this to happen," he whispered, feeling really sorry. He brought a hand up to his head, pressing his cap against his face. "Sorry"

“ _ We're falling head over heels… _ ”

"Y’know? I… I was in love with you” he said. Aloud. For the world. For the entire galaxy. For the stars. “Actually… I'm still in love with you. _I like you, Osamu-san_ ” he added, this time with much more security. Osamu removed his cap from his face and looked at him, half of his cheeks tinted red. “But… but today I realized something, and that something is that we’re two strangers, right? I'm in love with... something I don't know. Of something that probably isn’t real. And I'm scared. I... I don't want to get hurt. Not again"

“ _For something that ain't real..._ ”

And the stars found themselves being embraced by the darkness of Earth. Yamaguchi felt Osamu's perfume flood his senses, as the older man's arms wrapped around his torso. Osamu pressed the boy's body tightly against his’ while Yamaguchi was just trying to find an answer to what was happening, without success.

_The only thing he knew: he felt safe in his arms._

“ _It could never be us, eh…_ ”

"I... can’t reciprocate yer feelings, Yamaguchi-kun" Osamu snapped, breaking Tadashi's heart into a thousand pieces. Giving the stars a reason to cry. Stealing a smile from fate. And broke their hug. "But I wanna propose somethin’ to you" and looked Yamaguchi straight in the eye. Tadashi let tears run down his cheeks as Osamu just stared at him, waiting for him to return his words and tell him that he was in love with him. Again, it all seemed like a lie. " ** _Would you like to be my friend?_** "

“ ** _Just you and I_** ”

"Stay... stay by my side" said Osamu, and took Yamaguchi's hands, who was completely shocked. Tadashi searched Osamu's eyes until that feeling of security came from him when he found them, his hands and the rest of his body trembling slightly. "I’m afraid, and I don't understand why, but I know... I know that if I am close to you, I’ll understand," he explained, putting his hands on Yamaguchi's shoulders, who started to cry a few seconds earlier. " ** _I want to fall in love with you, Yamaguchi-kun_** "

Tadashi was stunned, looking directly into the depth and darkness of Osamu's eyes, feeling that all the security that the elder gave him was also the answer to all his questions. He sighed deeply and walked away from the older one, taking his hand in a small squeeze, and then looked back at him, this time smiling directly at him.

" _Okay, let's be friends, Osamu-san_ ," he snapped, feeling a tickle in his stomach rumble throughout his nervous system. That afternoon, the darkness of the Earth had lied to the stars, but he tried by all means to ensure that the attention they gave him were not going to disappear into the depths of space. Earth was terrified, but he knew he could count on the stars.

_Fate smiled. Osamu hugged Yamaguchi, and the stars whispered secrets from one side to the other._

**_And they kept writing their story..._ **


	4. the Sun is also a star.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Atsumu has a twisted story to tell. Hinata is part of it. The Sun is watching them. And so does destiny.

**_The sun is orange._ **

Those were the words Atsumu told his brother as the rest of the team left the gym prepared for the tournament. Atsumu has always been really good with words, good enough to sound convincing when he wanted something that caught his interest, but those words ended up confusing Osamu, who preferred to keep his mouth shut because, just like his brother, his mind was flooded with really unclear thoughts about a million things, but nothing at the same time.

And, in fact, no one said a single word until night, when they both left their tired bodies fall into their beds.

"The sun is orange, 'Samu" said Atsumu softly, waiting for his words to slip through the mattress onto the bed under his', although he knew perfectly well his brother listened as loud and clear as if he were the one who talked. Again, Osamu kept silent, turning to the wall. "The sun is orange, and it wants me to get closer. _I think I'm gonna get burnt, 'Samu_ "

A pair of brown eyes opened in the middle of the darkness of that room, and Osamu got up from his bed, standing in front of Atsumu, staring directly into his eyes. His face turned red, and noted that what was in front of him was a reflection of himself. A part of his messy hair fell freely on his face, covering almost every single corner of the blush Atsumu knew he couldn't hide from his brother. Nothing was what it seemed, and yet they both perfectly understood what happened. Because, one way or another, they both felt the same thing at the same time, in different ways.

_They both fell in love._

Even if Osamu chose keeping the thoughts Atsumu was able to read into his mind locked inside of his brain, Atsumu was a complete different case. The blonde didn't lose time in drilling Osamu's head until Osamu felt he wanted to take out his own ears because he was being extremely annoying, punching and kicking his brother in the process to shut him up. He remembers one night when Atsumu jumped out of his bed, waking him up once again because of some stupid idea he couldn't warn him about because he also thought of doing it a hundred million times, and didn't have enough courage to do. The only thing he could do, stop him. 

"You can't go to Miyagi in the middle of the night to ask for his number, ya idiot!" he tried to scream in a whisper, taking his brother's arm to get him back to his bed. Atsumu snorted, and released his brother's grip, turning back to the door, ready to end all his hell. "Atsumu!"

"Shut up! I'll go see the love of my life and ask for his number!" Atsumu countered, turning to Osamu ready to fight to fulfill his stupid high school dream. Osamu took advantage of his moment of dramatic weakness to jump towards the door, taking Atsumu by the shoulders, who soon began kicking his brother to let him out. "Leave me! I'll go after him and make him fall in love with me! We'll get married and have a house away from yer stupid face!"

"Atsumu" Osamu called, this time turning a deaf ear to the infinite amount of stupid things his brother was creating with his mind and shouting with his mouth. "Atsumu, shut up and listen to yourself, please" Osamu implored, to which Atsumu fell silent for a second, looking directly at his brother. " _Don't you think that's a little selfish of you?_ "

And Atsumu blanched. All movement of his body stopped in his tracks, feeling small under his brother's hands, who released his shoulders when he realized he'd not attempt a new madness if he let him go. Atsumu took a deep breath and looked down at his feet, dropping the huge backpack he carried on his shoulders, and then turned his back on his brother, dropping onto his bed. Osamu sighed, and opted to go upstairs to the bed, leaving his brother to continue his tantrum in what was his bed. This never happened, and yet he preferred to let him be, thinking that perhaps he would calm down at least a little of the whole string of emotions that he seemed unable to control.

To Osamu's surprise, Atsumu never spoke of Hinata Shouyou again, leaving the brown-haired man to sleep at night. A year had passed since that unbearable night, and Nationals were held again in the same place from the previous year, both Atsumu and Osamu excited to see the faces of those people who apparently were always together, and who for that winter morning nothing was different. Atsumu smiled to himself as well as his brother, who finished tying his shoes to start warming up on the court where in a few minutes the match between the team for which he was captain and that of his little orange sun would begin. It was funny, because Hinata was still exactly the same laughing, energetic boy he met a year earlier, and the only thing different about his figure was his hair, slightly longer than the year before.

_ The sun was still orange. _

Atsumu smiled, and pointed his index finger in the direction of the orange-haired man, who smirked, eagerly awaiting what Atsumu had promised him after his last confrontation ended, unwilling not to twist and fight with all his might. As expected, perhaps both for Atsumu and Hinata, Inarizaki ended up winning that battle, a battle that ended with a confused Atsumu and a smiling Hinata, confused because he had won, smiling because the battle between him and the opposing team's setter had been the most exciting of his second year. The blonde was confused, and couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat as he noticed, in the middle of the net, the way Hinata interacted with Kageyama. The way Hinata smiled knowingly at the taller, and the way the taller smiled back, perhaps out of habit, perhaps out of inertia, perhaps out of emotions that Atsumu himself was able to decipher, because they were the same ones that throbbed incessantly inside his mind. And that forced him to surrender. Everything was perfectly planned. Destroy Hinata Shouyou on the court, forgetting for a minute his burning love for the minor, and then approach him to ask for his number. His year-long dream was painstakingly arranged for it to happen, and yet fate took it upon himself to slide to his heels until he lost his balance and thus bravery.

Atsumu was wrong. Hinata Shouyou had changed. Hinata Shouyou was a much more mature boy, without losing that bright smile and cheerful personality that characterized him, and he had learned to use his charms against his enemies. Hinata Shouyou was a completely different person, and that forced Atsumu to accept his reality.

_ The one who hadn't changed was him. _

And while it was all some kind of horrible joke that fate had decided to play the couple, something that neither the blonde nor the redhead knew was that, between them, everything was different.

_ Fate could not play with Hinata Shouyou. _

**_Fate was not allowed to play with the Sun._ **

"Atsumu-san!" Hinata yelled, approaching at full speed towards the brothers, stopping in his tracks when noticing that they were both together, shaking his head from side to side to try to identify them. Osamu looked over his shoulder at Atsumu and shrugged his body, leaving the blonde completely alone. Atsumu, meanwhile, was completely paralyzed, and it was all because Hinata was talking to him. The sun was speaking to a mere mortal. "I loved today's game! I want to play with you again sometime!" he exclaimed, stealing another heartbeat directly from deep within Atsumu's heart. Hinata smiled, and pulled his phone out of his backpack, bringing it closer to the blonde's body. " ** _I want us to exchange numbers_** "

And Osamu rolled his eyes. It was the end of his quiet nights, it was the end of his quiet life, it was the end of a silent existence in which Atsumu swallowed his own thoughts because he couldn't upset his brother. Atsumu's phone was ringing the whole damn day, and there were nights when his brother stayed up until four in the morning, messaging with the number seven of Karasuno. He remembers the night Atsumu had spent more than an hour writing a single message for the orange-haired one, a message that Hinata had answered with something a million times shorter, and that in some way or another was enough for the blond to jump from happiness instead. He also remembers his graduation day, the day he kept the second button of his shirt in a small red box as if he were hiding the most expensive ring secretly from his brother, probably wishing to see the minor again to give it to him. But, above all, he remembers that day when the last game in the minor's National tournament changed both his brother's life and his forever.

"He... He's gonna go, 'Samu" said the blond, to which Osamu turned to him, letting go of Suna's shoulder, who felt a chill run down his back as he felt the heat of his lover slowly move away. "He said he'll go to Brazil to pursue his dream..." he continued, to which Osamu only managed to hug his brother, Atsumu's head resting on the shoulder of the brown-haired one. "What am I supposed to do now, 'Samu?"

Suna sighed, and was about to snort, but ended up turning the other way, lighting a cigarette, not willing to witness Atsumu's dramatic scene as he had done so many times during high school, refusing to believe that what Atsumu was saying was completely real. His feelings were genuine, and the only one who seemed to understand them was his brother. The only person who knew what had happened.

"The only thing you can do now is forget him, 'Tsumu," he advised, looking closely at the steam that escaped from his mouth every time he spoke, the noise of several cars igniting around him. "Or you can keep thinking about him until you rot from love," he added, stealing a bitter laugh from the opposite. Atsumu sighed, and then felt his brother take him by the shoulders until he spun around, meeting the huge bus ready to take Karasuno back to their respective city. "Or you can end all this too, 'Tsumu..."

And there he was, glowing beneath those dark clouds, from which small frozen droplets had begun to fall. On one side of the parking lot, Hinata Shouyou tightened his grip on the strap of his backpack, looking directly at the blonde. And on the other side, Atsumu felt his face redden as he felt the minor's gaze on him. A small smile appeared on the boy's lips, which remained static in place for a couple of minutes before someone called him to enter the bus, his smile and the brightness of his eyes disappearing at the last second.

**_Time that Atsumu soon discovered that he lost to save his entire situation._ **

"'Samu, are ya awake?" Atsumu commented that same night, hoping that his brother hadn't fallen asleep, although he was sure that it wasn't. Sometimes he felt a little stupid for asking questions to which he already knew the answer. “'Samu, Omi-kun sent me a message. Do you remember Omi-kun?” He added, and this time Osamu put his cell phone aside, ignoring the infinite number of messages that Suna was sending him, and stuck his head out of the side of the bed, meeting the screen of Atsumu's phone shining right on his face. "Look what he has sent me"

Osamu read the message and processed the information as fast as his tired brain could, and when he understood it, he raised his head towards the face of his brother, who was slightly flushed because of the short but concise confession on part of the black-haired man. At some point his brother told him that he found it cute.

"What are you plannin' to do, 'Tsumu?" the gray-haired one asked, and Atsumu returned his gaze to his phone, reading and rereading the message, trying to make sure everything was real. "That's dangerous..." he added, his voice slowly fading to the end when he noticed a small smile draw on his brother's lips. " _You're being selfish again, bro_ "

"So what?" added the blonde, typing in his message his newest and most recent error. Osamu snorted, and looked at his phone again, noting that Suna had completely blocked him, and dropped the device on his chest, defeated. " _Fuck Hinata Shouyou, I deserve to be happy too_ ”

Obviously, both Atsumu and Osamu knew that this was a vile and unfortunate lie. In less than a week Sakusa Kiyoomi visited the Miya residence, invading the space designated for Suna and Osamu to have their moment, declaring a war of false love on the sofa in the living room. Suna was typing on his phone sitting on Osamu's lap while he was watching television, and Sakusa pushed Atsumu's face when he tried to kiss him, deciding that sitting on the blonde's lap was a show of affection more than enough, although Atsumu demanded more.

"Hey, assholes" Atsumu called when Sakusa finally stopped pushing him, resting his face on his boyfriend's chest. Osamu turned, as did Suna, and they looked at him at the same time. "Guess who has been chosen to join the same volleyball team," added Atsumu, drawing a small smile on the lips of the other two, who congratulated the couple before returning to their previous state, this time Suna looking at Osamu directly.

"Your brother doesn't love Sakusa, does he?" Suna commented as soon as Atsumu and Sakusa made their way to their room, leaving the other two alone. Osamu opened his eyes and looked at him, nodding, wondering how he discovered it. "Well, he never tires of talking about Hinata Shouyou and to be honest, this is the first time I see and know Sakusa, who is the one that worries me the most," he explained, resting his head on his boyfriend's shoulder as he hugged his waist so he wouldn't fall off. "His eyes... His eyes shine when they look at him, Osamu. Atsumu is a fucking asshole”

"'Tsumu... He's confused," the elder tried to explain, Suna staring at him in complete disbelief. Osamu sighed and shrugged, seeking to rid himself of some of the guilt that everything was about to explode. "Just... let it be, 'kay?" he added, bringing his face closer to his boyfriend to kiss him, a kiss that Suna gladly accepted. It didn't take long for the kiss to ignite until Suna was under Osamu, as the older man's hands slipped under his shirt, the heat and contact rising as more skin was exposed.

And the sound of a door slamming brought them back to reality. Osamu stood up suddenly, as did Suna, and the next thing they saw was Sakusa, who directed his teary eyes towards them one last time before closing them and leaving the house, both Suna and Osamu feeling stupidly guilty. Suna greeted Osamu after that and opted to leave him alone, a fact that allowed Osamu to approach the room he shared with his brother, ready to talk to him about whatever had happened.

And it had all started right there. A year of a relationship that neither Atsumu nor Sakusa could endure, because the blonde continued to make the same mistake of believing that he could forget about the orange-haired man, and the black-haired man making the false idea that the blonde would love him as much as he did. Their relationship hadn't been bad, in fact, and Osamu concluded, after experiencing firsthand the sadness of ending with Suna, that what kept them together was the volleyball team they shared. Osamu was surprised every time Atsumu returned to his house with a new bag of cleaning products that he only saw when Sakusa was around, and left him with his mouth open when Atsumu reproached him that he had cleaned a specific point in the bathroom the wrong way, remembering when Sakusa did the same with the blonde.

**_They were remnants of a relationship that, perhaps, had done both of them good._ **

At some point they began to get along just as friends, although the dark-haired man continued with his hostile attitude towards his ex, and Osamu remembered that night when the entire team had gone to his store to celebrate his first tournament won, night when he heard Sakusa completely drunk agree with the blonde that the image of Hinata Shouyou, his Hinata Shouyou, along with that stupid setter from Aoba Johsai was horrible, and that Atsumu was a thousand times better match than the chestnut and that obviously he should confess to him as soon as he came back to Japan.

He also remembers Atsumu crying uncontrollably in his arms after the whole party, because it had been Sakusa who, drunk and without control of what he did or said, had revealed that the orange-haired one would join the Black Jackals, and that way he would be as close to the blonde as possible. Osamu remembers that his brother had gotten up with all the lights on the next day, without a trace of a hangover, and the first thing he had said remained in his mind for the rest of the time before Hinata returned to Japan, and he was completely shocked when what he promised was about to come true.

" ** _I'm gonna ask Hinata Shouyou out, 'Samu._** "

And that, although fate didn't want it, was something that both wanted from the first day their eyes met. The sun was orange. The sun was a star. Fate could not play with the sun. Atsumu loved the sun. And that meant that he had to create his own destiny.

**_To be happy with his own sun._ **


	5. the Sun  is powerless.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Atsumu are tied by the strings of Destiny.
> 
> And so did their love.

Thus, from one second to the next, Hinata Shouyou's life radically changed.

There was no physical or emotional change. The orange-haired man was still exactly the same one who returned from Brazil, a new person full of experience, both in volleyball and in life, and in fact saying that he changed was almost like lying. But a lot of times things happened to him when he wasn't seeing (or maybe feeling), and that one hundred and eighty-degree radical change was exactly one of those things.

**_Was he on a date with Atsumu Miya?_ **

_Or was it just his mind playing tricks on him?_

"Hey, 'Samu" Atsumu called, returning the orange haired's attention to the table they were sharing with the other couple. Hinata brought his eyes to the older one, meeting the worried gleam in Atsumu's eyes as he watched his brother run after Yamaguchi. Hinata sighed, drawing the blonde's attention again. "Somethin' happened?"

"Eh?" Hinata said, feeling the words gathering in his throat. "N-no, I'm fine. I'm only worried about Guchi" he added, nervously interlacing his fingers in an attempt to calm himself, shifting his gaze to the outside of Osamu's shop, failing in the attempt not to spot his best friend nor the other Miya. "Osamu-san is a world apart for him, especially now..."

"Now? Did somethin’ happen between him n’ 'Samu?" the older man asked quickly. Hinata felt his heart stop for a moment, and then he brought a hand to his face, embarrassed. Atsumu smiled, and looked once more towards the door before resting his head on his hand, admiring the minor while he had a nervous breakdown, once again.

"Please don't say anything, okay?" pleaded Hinata after taking a deep breath, taking one last look toward the door, and moved closer to the older's ear when he nodded. " _Osamu-san and Guchi aren’t dating_ ," he revealed, feeling Atsumu's body shudder and warm as he uttered those words. Hinata broke away, and found Atsumu petrified, with a powerful blush on his cheeks, about to fall exhausted on the wooden table. "Atsumu-san?"

Atsumu hid his face in his arms, not willing to let Hinata look at him in that state, and his whole body trembled when the minor's hand slipped through one of his arms, looking up at a worried Hinata who was waiting for him with a slight sparkle in his eyes. "You good?"

"Yes!" Atsumu yelled, leaning his back against the wall, his arms in the air. Hinata shuddered, parting from the older one, and finally understood what was happening. Hinata blushed, covering his face with both hands, and Atsumu returned to his place, this time a little further from Hinata, who managed to calm down after a couple of seconds.

"I think we should go..." Atsumu commented after endless minutes of awkward silence, pointing to his brother who was returning with Yamaguchi by his side, both wearing a relaxed smile on their faces. "We should leave 'em alone" he added, winking at Hinata, who smiled in amusement at what was happening.

Hinata got up from his place like the blonde just as Osamu and Yamaguchi arrived at the table, and they soon greeted the couple with the excuse that they both had to go back to their respective apartments because they had training early the next morning. Both Osamu and Yamaguchi looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders, and with a smile they greeted them, wishing them a safe journey back home. Both Atsumu and Hinata didn't waste a second wondering why Tadashi was staying with Osamu and didn't choose to go with them, but neither of the four wanted to say a word, so it ended up as a topic of conversation between the blond and the redhead as they walked to the train station.

"So? Yamaguchi-kun has a crush on 'Samu?" Atsumu's questions always had a tiny tinge of disinterest, but for Hinata everything that came out of his mouth seemed to seek to focus on him and only on him. Hinata smiled, and looked at Atsumu over his shoulder.

"Yes. He fell in love with him that day, remember?" Hinata replied, adding to his voice the flavor of a strange melancholy that Atsumu soon felt slide up his spine to his brain, his body shuddering as he understood what his wing spiker was talking about. "That same day you said you would set the ball for me," he continued, his smile growing with each memory that accumulated in his mind. " _I wonder if you thought of me all this time to keep your promise like that..._ "

" _Yeah, I've been thinking about you all this time_ " Hinata heard, raising his face to a flushed Atsumu as he took off the brown leather coat he was using to put it on the minor's shoulders. "Did y’know that Bokkun and Omi-kun almost put a strap around my neck the day ya sent that picture with that Aoba Johsai setter?" Atsumu asked, Hinata denying with a small smile, tugging at the folds of the jacket to keep warm, getting drunk on the older man's perfume. "I was furious, I wanted to get on the first available flight to Brazil to separate you from that idiot"

"Don't act like you're different from the Great King, Atsumu-san" Hinata commented after laughing frantically at Atsumu's comment, who soon gave the younger one an indignant look. "You and him look a lot alike. You're almost the same, I think," he added, a hand on his chin, spending seconds of his time thinking about the similarities between Oikawa and Atsumu, even knowing that the older one was burning with jealousy.

"Dunno if I should take that as a compliment or an insult..." replied Atsumu, who raised his gaze from Hinata's hair towards the street, finding himself directly with the train station, as well as the small park just behind it. "Oh!" he exclaimed, and took Hinata's hand to guide him to the center of that huge block full of green, with a couple of children's games in the center. "I remember this park. I used to come here with 'Samu when we were kids.

Hinata smiled, and soon got up to the small wooden house surrounded by slides while Atsumu just sat on one of the swings, taking advantage of the fact that no one was there at that time, admiring Hinata while he smiled just below the Moon. A small blush spread across Atsumu's cheeks, and it grew more and more powerful as Hinata sat on top of one of the slides, letting himself fall freely, the air and Atsumu's perfume mixing on his nose as he slid down. Hinata smiled, and time and space froze the moment he reached the end of the slide.

**_Atsumu was kissing him._ **

It was dry kiss, devoid of all the emotions that both Atsumu and Hinata wanted to show, and it quickly turned into a needy kiss, a kiss that demanded to satisfy years of waiting from both men, a kiss that asked for more contact and demanded passion, a kiss that soon melted into the love they were both feeling for each other. Hinata brought both hands to Atsumu's face, pulling his head against his, while Atsumu supported the full weight of his body on his hands on the edges of the slide. Hinata wasted no time in wrapping his arms around the older man's neck, pressing down with the little force he had left until Atsumu gave in, slipping onto him while the orange haired explored the inside of his mouth on top of him. It was five minutes. Eternal five minutes in paradise, five minutes more effective than any date, more powerful than any phone call, more powerful than any hug or shared jacket.

**_Five minutes that had extraordinary powers._ **

Five minutes that were still tied to the laws of nature, especially that of living beings. Hinata's mouth left Atsumu's, sitting on his legs while he just looked at him carefully, refusing to miss a single second of the whole moment that was happening. Hinata's eyes gleamed in the darkness his own body created against the moonlight, and a small smile accompanied them with the same intensity.

" _Damn, I love you_ " was the only thing Atsumu could say. His entire body began to tremble, and a tear escaped his eyes, followed by another, and one more, and in a matter of seconds he found himself crying with a stupid smile on his lips. Hinata was shocked, and froze when Atsumu hugged his body, hiding his face in his chest. " _I love you. I love you so much. **I'm stupidly in love with you.** Can you tell me this is real? I can't believe it. I just kissed Hinata Shouyou, damn it._"

"Atsumu-san..." Hinata whispered when he managed to react, smiling at the blond's hair when he felt his chest moisten from his tears. "It's real, I'm here. You just kissed me, I just kissed you" he explained, hiding his face in Atsumu’s soft hair, getting drunk for the third time in the sweetening aroma that the older man gave off. "I love you too, Atsumu-san. **_I'm home, thank you for waiting for me all this time._** "

Atsumu separated from Hinata, meeting directly with his eyes and his smile, and Hinata soon fused their lips in a new kiss, which Atsumu didn’t take long to reciprocate as he brought both hands to Hinata’s face, desperately trying to increase the intensity of his contact, Hinata gladly accepting the blond's invitation.

"Are ya gonna leave again?" Atsumu asked after the kiss, while Hinata drew small circles on his chest and Atsumu tangled his fingers in his hair. "I want you to be with me" he added, to which Hinata slowed his movements and raised his head, resting his chin on Atsumu’s chest, automatically meeting his eyes. "I want you to stay with me"

"But I must go home. Mom will worry if I come back late" Hinata refuted, to which Atsumu could only smirk upon hearing such words from a twenty-one-year-old adult man. Hinata raised an indignant eyebrow, and pulled away from Atsumu until he was sitting on his lap again. "What’s so funny?"

"Yer twenty-one and you’ve been living in a country on the other side of the world for several years, Shouyou-kun" Atsumu commented, holding back the laugh that was trying to get out anyway. Hinata crossed his arms and puffed out his cheeks in reproach, finally stealing Atsumu's laugh. "I don't think yer mother is that worried about you"

"Even if she isn't, I'm the one who worries that she doesn't worry" Hinata replied, releasing a short tired breath from deep his lungs, seeking to convey his indignation to the older man. Atsumu laughed again, and brought his body closer to Hinata until he hid his face in his neck, leaving small kisses in the entire extension of his skin.

"It's okay, it's okay. You win" Atsumu said, surrendering to the Hinata's charms. Hinata sighed, and took his phone from one of his pockets, beginning to type a message quickly. "I'm just inviting you to spend the night at my place" he offered, to which Hinata raised his gaze, pressing send while reading Atsumu's eyes in the middle of the night. "We can stay at my place here in Hyogo. After all, there’s one extra bed in my old room."

Hinata looked at Atsumu for a few seconds before smiling, nodding, to which Atsumu hid his face again in his neck while he sent another message to his mother, explaining that he would spent the night with Atsumu-san. A couple of minutes after that, minutes that Atsumu treasured with each of his cells, Hinata's phone rang, a sign that his mother had answered.

"I think we better start walking, it's getting cold" Atsumu commented as soon as Hinata's eyes met his, a smile spreading from one face to another, and the orange-haired man stepped off the blonde followed by him, and they began to walk guided by Atsumu. "Wow, it's seriously getting too cold"

Hinata smiled, and brought his body closer to Atsumu, resting one of the blond's arms on his shoulders as his head fell on his chest. Atsumu stopped shaking and looked at Hinata, who raised his face just to smile at him before turning his gaze to the front and continuing to walk, his back vibrating as he felt Atsumu's hand press his shoulder, pulling his body a little closer to him. The rest of the walk went in silence, a silence that they had both agreed to during those glances that seemed to speak for themselves, even if no words were really needed. Atsumu smiled at Hinata when he stopped walking in front of a small house that still had an occasional light on inside, which Atsumu soon entered followed by a curious Hinata who was squeezing his hand somehow nervously.

"I'm home" the blonde introduced himself as he took off his shoes at the entrance, Hinata imitating him, and took Hinata’s hand again to continue his way through the dark corridor that ended in the first illuminated room, the living room. "Well, we are" Atsumu added as he stood under the threshold of the living room door, with a Hinata hiding half his body behind his shoulder.

"My children? My _demons_ came to visit me?!" shouted a woman hiding behind one of the one-piece armchairs that decorated the room, and then her head popped out above the headboard, her eyes shining with happiness as she found her son's face. "Atsumu! You remembered you have a mother, you bastard!"

The night-dark-haired, blue-eyed woman leapt to meet her son, pressing her small body against the blond, kissing his face longingly. Hinata smiled, laughing at the way Atsumu's mother treated her son, and the way Atsumu reproached his mother for her displays of affection in front of his friend. Hinata blushed at having the look of the woman in front of him, and became twice as nervous when the woman broke a smile on her lips.

"Who is he? _Is he your boyfriend_?" asked the woman, to which both Atsumu and Hinata felt the blood and heat rise to their faces, the woman laughing at their reactions. "Don't tell me. This is the boy you told me about in high school. He's so cute!" she added, looking at both Atsumu and Hinata, knowing she was putting her finger on the sore. "My name is Keiko Miya, nice to meet..."

"Hinata... Shouyou Hinata" replied the minor after looking at Atsumu completely terrified and cornered, with the bright smile of the woman placed over his eyes. The woman took Hinata's hand tightly and then hugged him, wrapping him, body in a warm and friendly gift, as the woman liked to call those gestures.

"As bright as the sun" commented the woman and then hugged Hinata again, squeezing the man's back tightly. " _Take good care of my son, or there will be consequences, Shouyou-kun_ " she threatened in a soft, almost silent voice to one of Hinata's ears, surprising him, leaving him completely petrified. The woman pulled away from Hinata, and then looked at Atsumu. "What brings you boys here?"

Atsumu smiled. "Shouyou-kun will stay here tonight" he explained, stealing a new smile from the woman who turned to look at a distraught Hinata who was staring at some dead point in the room. "We came to visit 'Samu together and we’ll leave early in the morning for practice."

"That’s magnificent!" Keiko's voice echoed throughout the house, making Hinata snap out of his trance to see mother and son talking about something he wasn't hearing. "Are you hungry? Do you want to take a bath? " the woman asked, this time looking at Hinata, who put a hand to the back of his neck somewhat tired.

“I am exhausted and I am not too hungry. What about you?" he asked, looking at Atsumu over his mother's shoulder, who only just smiled, coming closer to Hinata's side once more.

"I think we’ll accept the bath for now" Atsumu answered for both of them, smiling at his mother, who returned the smile and chose to leave space for her son and Hinata just by nodding, and the two left the room to go up to the first floor.

The blonde showed him the room he shared with his brother for many years, smiling warmly at a lively Hinata who inspected every tiny detail of the room until he knew it by heart, and then led him to the bathroom where Atsumu explained where he could find towels and everything he needed to take a bath. Hinata raised an eyebrow and tugged at the older's shirt just before he could escape, to which Atsumu swung around to find an indignant Hinata waiting for him to take the hint, totally confused.

" _Won't you take a bath with me?_ " he asked, his eyes shining in the light from that hallway, completely petrifying the blond. Atsumu felt his heart explode in a million beats, and it didn't take long for every inch of his body to redden. "You are a fucking virgin, Atsumu-san" he joked.

With a smile on his lips, Hinata tugged at Atsumu until he fully entered the bathroom, and blocked the front door when the older one sat still confused on one of the edges of the tub. Hinata smiled, and began to fill the huge bathtub with water to the top, undressing in the process, indicating Atsumu to do the same almost as if he were a small child. When everything was ready he pressed on Atsumu’s back to make him sit inside the tub, and then he sat on his lap, wetting both his hair and that of an embarrassed Atsumu.

"D-don't you think w-we're going too fast?" Atsumu hesitated, feeling his tongue tangle inside his mouth as Hinata's body rubbed against his, a certain lower part creating unnecessary friction with his crotch. Hinata smiled, and rested the back of his neck on one of Atsumu's shoulders, looking down at him.

"I thought about it at first..." he explained, smiling at a blushing Atsumu, perhaps because of the hot water. "But you know something? Over time I learned that future and destiny will not wait for you forever. Many times things end up happening even if you’re not prepared for them, so there’s no time to doubt whether you should do them or not," he added, this time bringing his head to Atsumu's neck, bringing his knees to his chest. “I like you, I have always liked you. When you kissed me, you wanted to say that you liked me too, maybe that you liked me, and that reason was enough for me to take that destiny in my hands and put it in my favor. So... **_If being happy means you have to go very fast, then I’ll run at the speed of a shooting star._** "

Atsumu pressed Hinata’s body to get separated, without words to pronounce, and the Hinata imitated him, sweetening Atsumu's gaze with one of his smiles, and then the blond ended up kissing Hinata, who gladly accepted the addictive kiss from his lover, wrapping his neck with his arms. Maybe Hinata didn't know, or maybe he would learn it in time, but Atsumu had a little secret.

_Hinata had the power to make him the happiest person in the entire Universe._

Between kisses and caresses they finished taking a bath, and quickly changed into clothes a little more comfortable to sleep on, Hinata claiming that he should sleep next to Atsumu because if he slept in the upper bed he would end up missing him at night. The first to fall asleep was Hinata, who in his dreams sought the warmth and contact of others by hugging Atsumu, hiding his face in the older man's chest, to which the blond just limited himself to hugging his little lover, kissing his forehead with tenderness before closing his eyes and surrendering to the happy world of dreams that, without seeking or needing it, would end up connecting with that of the person he loved the most in his life.

Interestingly, Hinata was right. Fate never expected anyone. Fate was a strange coincidence of many, many things that continued one another, and all it had to do was decide the time difference between one and the other. Sometimes it was generous, and it ended up giving you more time than the initial one, and sometimes it was cheating, making you collide with the harsh reality that something you were looking for now would be completely different because fate had chosen it. But for Hinata, he was one step ahead of destiny. He was the only one who had surpassed the powers of that sadistic beast. He was the only one capable of making fun of everything that happened to him in life and winning for it.

**_The Sun, by its condition, was not allowed to have powers._ **

_And Hinata, more by luck than by decision, had never needed that._


	6. the stars are all friends.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Yamaguchi whispered to the ceiling of his room, his eyes lighting up with small white dots until the glow finally lit up the entire room, which was now full of stars.

**_It was his own galaxy_**.

" _What do you want to do, Yamaguchi-kun?_ " answered the sweet and calm voice of a woman, who with only the sound that her vocal cords created was able to erradicate all traces of annoyance, fatigue and anger from Yamaguchi's body. " _What is it you wish for, Tadashi?_ " she added, and the freckled man was startled when he noticed that the stars were fading little by little until the only thing that illuminated the room were his freckles.

"I don't want to get away from him" Yamaguchi's voice unconsciously took a tone of desire, which soon took the form of heartbeats, indicating that his desire was as alive as he was at that very moment. "But I don't want to be just his friend either," he finished, feeling that in some way or another _wishing_ things and _wanting_ things were completely different, and that something or someone in the universe was willing to listen to his prayers, even when he wanted to want something and not wish for it. " ** _I want him to love me_** "

" _You cannot force love on someone, Yamaguchi_ ," the woman replied, his freckles flaming every time she spoke. Yamaguchi rolled his eyes until they fell on the small opening in the door of that room, the light from outside filtering through every available space. " _And that's too selfish for a wish_ " she continued, this time Yamaguchi closing his eyes somewhat annoyed. She was right, and that always seems to bother a lot of people. " _However, it may be best if you stay as friends, don't you think?_ "

"Mhm..." snapped the brunette, and opened his eyes again, this time to the total darkness of his room, noticing that the door was completely closed, and then he heard footsteps moving down the hall. He turned his gaze to the ceiling, finding it completely empty, and finally understood that it was a dream.

One more of those dreams.

During his entire life, Yamaguchi had -and continues to have, of course- strange dreams where he finds himself talking to the stars, and they answer him as if they were someone else. No one in his environment knows it, not even Hinata, and that was because the boy had decided that this would be his little secret and, although it seemed crazy and not at all logical, the advice that those stars gave him served him well.

He put a hand to his mouth to yawn as he walked down that dark hallway, and he couldn't help but put a hand to his belly, feeling chills run over his hot skin as his frozen hand made contact. He ended by sighing, and finally opened his eyes somewhat teary from his yawn, finding himself in the middle of a kitchen that he didn't know at all.

"G'night, Yamaguchi-kun" Osamu said with a small smile, and the freckled man paled. His face slowly turned red until it turned into a tomato, a face that he covered with his hands when he felt Osamu's piercing gaze on his person. "Want a coffee?"

Yamaguchi took a deep breath and removed his hands from his still flushed face to nod without looking at the older man. Osamu smiled again and took one of the cups close to him to fill it with the drink, handing it to Yamaguchi when he managed to regain his composure and sit down next to the black-haired man. Osamu took a sip of his coffee that was already cold, while Yamaguchi warmed his hands in his mug before tasting the drink.

"It's delicious" he praised as soon as he finished tasting it, meeting Osamu's gaze on him when he decided to look at him, both pairs of eyes colliding in an intense battle that lasted a few seconds. "Tha-thank you... for letting me stay here..."

"Don't worry" replied Osamu, a smile still on his face, causing Yamaguchi to end up cursing him for smiling at all times. "I wasn't gonna let ya come back to Miyagi so late" he repeated, for the fifth time in a couple of hours, widening the same smile with which he looked at Yamaguchi every time he replied with that reason. "Do ya have to go to college?"

"Yes," Tadashi replied almost out of inertia, surprised both by his own answer and by the older man's question, who hid his gaze in his reflection on the coffee. Yamaguchi sighed, and took another sip of his coffee before continuing. "How do you know I'm going to college?"

"Eh... I... I asked Shouyou-kun..." each word that the older man tried to pronounce came out of his throat with some difficulty, which ended up stealing a small smile from Yamaguchi when he noticed that Osamu had gotten nervous for the first time that day. "I'm sorry, I should've asked you during our date," he continued, and this time he could feel the look of Tadashi on his face, which began to burn more intensely when he felt discovered. "I think a part of me really wanted to go on a date with ya."

Osamu hid his blush in his coffee as he took a sip, and then looked Yamaguchi straight in the eye, Tadashi's smile shining on the already cold coffee in his cup. Osamu ended up imitating him, filling his mug with some more coffee before looking into his eyes once more.

"Okay," said the freckled man, a laugh escaping his lips, this time finishing his coffee. He returned the cup to Osamu before resting his chin on his hand, ready to continue the talk that at first seemed to want to escape more than he had now been interested in. "If we want to be friends we must get to know each other better"

"I think so" this time Osamu's words sounded more relaxed, and with a last sip he finished his coffee and put the cup next to Yamaguchi's, resting both arms on the table without looking away, not even for a second, the opposite face. "What're ya studyin'?" he added, and this time Yamaguchi was startled instead, forgetting for a second everything he had learned during his college years, until the words accumulated in his mouth.

"I'm studying electronic engineering," he answered in one fell swoop, to which Osamu smiled, catching for a moment the other's emotion. His eyes were shining. "I'll start working for an electronics company next year," he added, this time with a proud smile on his lips.

Osamu felt his heart pounding. "Sounds good," he said. Yamaguchi widened his smile and then lifted his legs to cross over his chair, tapping his heels in an attempt to keep his sanity. "I started cooking because of my taste for food and... Because of a friend"

"And that makes your food excellent!" Yamaguchi replied, lifting both thumbs up, stealing a small laugh from the older man's deep voice that made his entire body shake. "Your food is delicious, Osamu-san"

"Thank you. I…”Osamu's voice suddenly changed in tone, Yamaguchi feeling that the sincerity and confidence with which he used to say things disappeared in a matter of seconds. Tadashi looked at the older man, who met both glances by raising his head, and Yamaguchi could see that the sparkle in his eyes disappeared leaving the confusion deep in that dark brown. "Sometimes I find it hard to believe, but it isn't something I like to talk 'bout"

"Mmm..." Yamaguchi expressed, more with his face than with his voice, concern creeping into every part of his face. The minor tugged on the sleeves of his shirt until they covered his hands, and then rested his chin on them. “Then let's talk about something else. What do you like to do in your free time?"

And so it began. A two-hour conversation in which Osamu was slowly forgetting who the person in front of him was, and in which Yamaguchi felt that he could talk about whatever he wanted at any time. A conversation in which each one ended up telling the other about the things that made up their day-to-day lives, and a conversation in which both had felt incredibly comfortable. A conversation that ended when Osamu found himself sitting on his couch, talking to himself, with Yamaguchi sleeping peacefully on his shoulder.

"Yamaguchi-kun?" he called, glancing at the freckled man over his shoulder. He could hear Yamaguchi breathe in the silence of his living room, and his heart soon followed the same rhythm as Tadashi's breathing, speeding up when Yamaguchi stirred a bit, wrapping his arm in a hug. "Yamaguchi-kun, you have to go to bed" he tried again, even knowing it would be in vain.

Osamu sighed, smiling, and moved slowly until he got up, looking at Yamaguchi as he slid his hands under his back and his knees, lifting his body. Tadashi, perhaps instinctively, rested his face on Osamu's chest, who led Yamaguchi to his room, laying him on the bed and then covering him.

"Good night, Yamaguchi-kun" Osamu whispered before sighing one last time and leaving the room with a smile on his lips, looking forward to the arrival of the next morning to meet Tadashi again and talk to him.

The night left that part of the world, and the sun presented itself without asking for permission. When Yamaguchi managed to wake up completely and leave that room, Osamu was in the kitchen tying the apron with which he cooked in his store. Yamaguchi gulped, feeling his heart stop and his eyes staring at Osamu's figure, who seemed to be doing it on purpose. The muscles in his arms were marked every time he tied a knot, and the way he finished tying the apron ended up fitting perhaps too much over his abdomen, ending Yamaguchi's little sanity so early in the morning, leaving him blow sitting behind Osamu.

"Good morning, Yamaguchi-kun" Osamu greeted when he heard him, turning to meet the boy's completely flushed face. Yamaguchi sighed, and a somewhat unconcentrated smile appeared on his lips. "You good?"

"I-I'm fine" he managed to answer with more than nervous laughs, to which Osamu just shrugged and turned his attention to the kitchen, knowing that he had Yamaguchi's intense gaze on his back.

"Whatcha want for breakfast?" Osamu asked after a couple of seconds in silence, and he could hear the minor stirring in his place at his question, an amused smile playing on his face.

"Whatever you want is fine," he replied, not knowing if that was what he wanted to say. For some strange reason, everything he said to Osamu seemed more like a lie than a simple truth, and it also made him wonder if everything he said was true or was it just a lie that he himself was trying to make himself believe.

"'kay, I'll surprise ya" Osamu said, to which both he and Yamaguchi laughed. In a few minutes a truly addictive aroma filled every inch of the room, hypnotizing Yamaguchi, who wondered if an aroma was capable of hypnotizing a person, and it wasn't long before he returned to reality when Osamu presented a couple of dishes in front of him , his eyes shining at such a feast just for a breakfast. "Enjoy it"

"This... This is too much!" Yamaguchi forgot for an instant all the accumulated emotion inside him, and couldn't help but look at Osamu with a smile before thanking for the food and starting to eat, stealing a new smile from the older man. "It's delicious!"

Osamu took a bite and was surprised to feel the taste, automatically agreeing with the minor. "'m glad you like it, Yamaguchi-kun" replied, feeling that the same situation from a few hours earlier was repeating itself, and that the comfort of each other's company had become something he could trust. " ** _I did it thinkin' 'bout ya_** "

_For Yamaguchi, of course, the food stopped at mid-throat._

Osamu jumped to meet him when he noticed Yamaguchi was coughing uncontrollably in front of him, and was alarmed when he noticed that Yamaguchi didn't compose himself. He offered him a glass of water, which Tadashi drank in one fell swoop, taking a deep breath as he felt the air rush through his throat, and then he looked at Osamu, completely flushed, just like him. No more words were needed, and Osamu returned to his place to continue his breakfast in silence, a silence that Yamaguchi preferred to adopt when he felt that the environment had changed radically.

_Their hearts beat at the same rate. Fast, irregular, uncontrolled._

**_And it was for the same reason._ **

"Be careful on yer way home, Yamaguchi-kun" were Osamu's first words since breakfast, words that Yamaguchi took with a small smile from across the counter of the older man's store.

"I will," Tadashi replied, and received the small package with a pair of onigiris from Osamu that he insisted Tadashi should take for lunch. "Thank you very much for taking care of me, Osamu-san" he added, a little bow and Osamu's smile in between.

The freckled waved his hand and left Osamu, approaching the door, stopping when Osamu spoke again. "Yamaguchi-kun" and Tadashi turned, his hand still on the doorknob, and their gazes met over all the tables and chairs. Osamu smiled, and Yamaguchi felt his cheeks burn. " ** _Remember that you can always count on me_** "

And those were the words that were recorded in Yamaguchi's mind, repeating themselves over and over again as he returned on the train. He couldn't help but bump into more than one person because of it, and he felt his clumsiness increasing with every second that passed as he thought of those words, as with everything that had happened since the night before, and felt his back shivering the moment he inserted the key to his apartment in the lock on his door.

**_Damn, he wanted it so much._ **

_And his freckles began to glow._

The door to his apartment opened, and the sound of water falling freely flooded Yamaguchi's ears, who only managed to remain static on the other side of the door, speechless, as he watched one of his shoes float from one room to another, and the water slowly covering his pants until it reached his heels. It took him a moment to analyze the whole situation, and another to get closer to the place where that sound of water came from, closing the faucet when he noticed that there was a leak.

_A huge, stupid leak._

“ _Sorry, I think it will take a while to repair this. Can you find another place to live while we sort it out?_ " answered the owner of the apartment over the phone -to Yamaguchi's surprise, who felt the anger slowly build up inside him- and although Tadashi wanted to complain, all he managed to say was a simple and dry 'it's okay' before hanging up the call, desperately seeking Yachi's contact at that very moment.

It was funny, because Tadashi hadn't asked for that. His dream was simply to go back to the night before, to go back to the exact moment in which Osamu made him laugh with the stories he told him about his brother, to go back to the moment in which Osamu tied his apron around his waist, to go back to the moment in which Osamu was smiling at him. He didn't want that, he didn't want his best friend not to answer him, much less wanted Hinata not to answer him. Tsukishima would never be in his plans, and his mother lived a little further than normal for the university to be close.

_He wanted to be with Osamu._

" _Maybe it's best if you stay as friends, don't you think?_ " echoed in his mind when everything seemed to have reached a dead end. His gaze was on his reflection on the water that filled the entire floor of his room, and he couldn't help but notice that his freckles were shining, as were his eyes. " _Remember that you can always count on me_ ," repeated his voice this time, and a sigh accompanied his shaking hand, which sought the contact of Osamu on his phone, admiring the profile image and the small green call button with some confusion. And his mind spoke again.

" _After all, that's what friends are for, isn't it, Yamaguchi-kun?_ "

And pressed to call. His spine vibrated to the sound of the beeps, and his heart was spinning as well as his brain when he heard Osamu's voice greet him with concern. And he knew that, at that moment, his story was beginning.

**_His happiness was at the hands of fate again._ **


	7. the stars change everytime.

Somehow, he was hating himself.

He stood in front of the glass door of Osamu's store, pressing the strap of the small bag that he brought with him against his stomach, passing saliva as Osamu's eyes found him above all the people inside the store. He saw Osamu speak to one of his employees before taking off his apron and running towards the entrance, hugging Yamaguchi as soon as he was in front of him.

"Ya 'kay?" he managed to ask, Tadashi feeling chills run down his spine when he felt Osamu's breath on his skin. He slid his hands down his torso until they reached his back, reciprocating the hug while hiding his face in one of Osamu's shoulders, silently inhaling the taller's essence.

"Yes, I'm fine" replied the freckled, and Osamu separated from him, enough to look him in the eyes, without letting go of his shoulders. "I didn't have anyone else to call, sorry" he confessed, with a somewhat nervous smile, returning one of his hands to the strap of his bag. Osamu shook his head and smiled at him, taking one of the bags Yamaguchi brought with him.

"You don't have to worry" Yamaguchi discovered that Osamu's voice had the ability to change its tone whenever he wanted it, and for the freckled man that was like torture. "I told'ya before, you can always count on me" he added, entering the store while pushing Yamaguchi from behind.

"E-Eh?" The blush on Yamaguchi's cheeks was present as he walked through the small corridor that formed between the tables in the store, feeling the stares of each and every one of the people present. "Thank you, Osamu-san" he tried to say, but the murmur of people's voices ended up dulling his voice, and the only thing he got from Osamu was a friendly smile and a new push on his back.

He couldn't deny that his curiosity hadn't been piqued. Among all the things he heard from that people, what had interested him the most were the questions of whether he was Osamu's boyfriend or if he was just a friend. Did he had a lover during his life? Did he shown them publicly in the store? Was there any reason to even worry? Tadashi had never been the type to ask about everything, but it took a couple of steps inside the older man's home for him to completely lose his mind.

_Once again._

"Ya can stay here, the same room you slept yesterday," he explained, placing the bag he carried in his hand on the bed, Yamaguchi imitating him with his bag. "I can find a small old desk my mom gave me when I moved here, and you can do whatever you want with the room," he added, this time with a smile, a gesture that Tadashi soon classified as anxious. "You shouldn't worry about the rent, that's paid by the store"

"What?" Yamaguchi asked, just before opening his bag with the few clothes he brought. Tadashi's eyes met Miya's, who jerked into place, feeling every muscle in his body tense. "No! I'll help you pay the rent" he refuted, choosing to change the tone of his voice to a more serious one. "I may stay here for a few weeks, maybe less than a month, but I'll pay."

"It's not necessary, Yamaguchi-kun" Osamu's smile shone at his very presence. Tadashi sighed, and raised an eyebrow at Osamu, who felt that there would be no way to make the younger boy change his mind. "If you wanna help me, ya can work in the store, _with me_ "

Yamaguchi opened his eyes to an amused Osamu, who seemed to have been surprised by his own proposal. Tadashi looked him straight in the eye before turning to his bag, feeling that his clothes were the only thing he could feel safe in, until he decided to smile at the older man and nod, accepting his proposal. Osamu smiled back, and left the room for a minute, coming back to the sound of keys colliding with each other.

"Here, this is the key to the apartment, and this is the key to the store" he explained, handing them to the freckled man, who smiled fondly when he noticed the small key ring with a black star that came with the keys. "If you need anythin', please don't hesitate to ask me" ended with a smile.

Tadashi nodded, also smiling, and the older one left his room to give the other his space, who began to take out all his things to put them in the small closet arranged on the other side of the bed. When he finished he sat on the mattress, turning on his phone, and a call from Yachi came in at that very moment, Yamaguchi answering without knowing very well what he was going to say to the blonde. The call lasted less than five minutes, enough minutes for Tadashi to explain the situation to the blonde, Yachi apologize for not having answered in time, and ask him if he will be okay living with Osamu Miya.

_It was obvious that, for Tadashi, this was like living in both heaven and hell._

But he lied, and assured the blonde that he'd be fine. He left a message for Hinata explaining the situation, noting that the messages didn't enter his chat, choosing to ignore the fact by falling on the bed, losing his gaze on the beige ceiling, the same one where he had seen the stars light up at night. It didn't take long for him to let his mind wander into everything that was happening, and little by little he began to feel the anxiety taking hold of him, a new question materializing in his mind.

_What was he supposed to do now?_

He didn't think about it too much, maybe because he didn't want to, maybe because he ended up completely asleep, waking up suddenly a couple of hours later to the sound of the door opening and closing, and someone's footsteps echoing down the hall until the door in front of his room opened and closed. Tadashi yawned, rubbing his eyes with his fingers, and decided to get up, leaving his room, noticing that on the other side of the front door was Osamu. He yawned again, and decided to approach the kitchen, sitting in one of the chairs to wait for the older man to finish, relaxing when he heard the sound of running water from that room.

"Oh, Yamaguchi-kun" Osamu said when he finished, snapping Tadashi out of his musings, completely drawing his full attention. The freckled man turned to where the voice came from, and both his soul and his breath left his body, his face flushing completely as he had Osamu Miya half-naked in front of him. "Eh?"

Tadashi couldn't say a word, and Osamu quickly understood what was happening, feeling the heat rise to his cheeks instantly. With a powerful ' _'m sorry_ ' Osamu left the kitchen, letting an embarrassed Tadashi inhale and exhale deeply for a couple of minutes before returning to the kitchen with some clothes on. Yamaguchi refused to look at Osamu, and Osamu chose to imitate him as he approached the refrigerator in search of something to eat, without a word to say. Silence was present between them, and Yamaguchi, prisoner of nerves and fatigue, could only manage to admire while the older one cooked, exactly like that morning.

_If he let that happen, admiring Osamu Miya while he cooked could be his new addiction._

"Thanks for the food" Osamu whispered before starting to eat, Yamaguchi doing the same after a while. His eyes darted from time to time from his food to Osamu, who seemed to be in sync since their gazes always collided at the same time, blushing before returning to their dinner. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have appeared like that 'round here" Osamu commented when he gathered all the courage to speak, and Yamaguchi stopped eating to look at him, still embarrassed. Osamu kept eating. "I'm not used to livin' with someone"

"I-It's fine" Yamaguchi managed to say with a small smile on his lips. Osamu handed it back over his plate before going back to his food, surprising Tadashi when he poured a little more rice onto his plate other than all that had already been served. "Do you always eat... That much?"

Osamu looked up from those white pimples to the brown spots on Yamaguchi's face, who had barely touched his food since the older one served the dinner. The black-haired man was stunned, but it was unfair to be able to complain, because he knew he couldn't claim anything from Yamaguchi.

However, no one had ever asked him that question. Not even his brother.

"I... do?" He hesitated, the smile on Yamaguchi's lips growing until it overflowed, giggling. "What's so funny about it?" Osamu mouthed, with fewer and fewer words to say, ignoring the fact that Yamaguchi's laugh had the dangerous potential to become his new favorite sound in his entire life.

"It's nothing bad. It's just..." he explained, resting his chopsticks on the edge of his plate before turning his gaze straight ahead. "My father used to eat too much, and my mother always scolded him for it. She said that, with his stomach, there would be no rice field capable of supporting" he explained, laughing, which for him was a somewhat complicated subject. Osamu tried to read what was beyond Yamaguchi's eyes, which were staring down at his plate, and he lost his chance to understand when his gaze returned to him, his eyes shining with an intensity never seen before, at least for Osamu. "And he said that if he had to create his own farm with rice fields to continue eating it, that he would definitely cross land and sea to do so"

Osamu smiled, and ended up imitating the younger, resting his chopsticks on his plate. "He sounds fun" he commented, feeling his stomach surprisingly full, and looked at his chopsticks for a couple of seconds before resting them on the plate and not at its edges, indicating to the child that their dinner was finished. "Ya should introduce me to him some day"

"Eh..." Yamaguchi automatically hid his gaze on his plate, trying to read the most coherent answer at his dinner before returning to Osamu, this time with a smile. "Yes, you will like him" he replied, infecting Osamu seconds later. Yamaguchi got up, ready to wash and clean everything Osamu used to cook, also ready to argue with Osamu until he finally gave up, leaving him to be because, otherwise, the younger would end up threatening him with a knife.

The black-haired man quickly moved his chair in the direction of Yamaguchi, who was right behind him, sliding that sponge over the plates, whistling an old song that Osamu recognized from when his mother used to clean the house on Sunday mornings and Radio always put it on, without fail, at the same time. A smile was slowly making itself present on the older man's lips until he ended up closing his eyes, letting himself be carried away by the melody, feeling a strange force control him until he was able to open his eyes.

"O-Osamu-san?" Yamaguchi asked. The silence was palpable between the two men, and the only sound that tried to break that silence was from the water running freely. "Osamu-san? Are you okay?" Yamaguchi spoke again, this time moving a little in the direction of the older man, who regained each of his senses when he felt Tadashi's back stir on his chest. "Osamu-san..."

"Huh?!" snapped Osamu, abruptly separating himself from Tadashi, who could only turn in his direction, looking at him still confused. "What was I doin'?" he asked, bringing a hand to his forehead, shifting his gaze to the ground. Yamaguchi smiled, closing off the water.

"I don't know. You got closer and... You hugged me" explained how little he had been able to understand, opting for one of his most sincere smiles. Osamu sighed, and looked at him just before yawning. "I think you're tired. You should go to bed" he advised before turning back to the dishes he was washing, and heard Osamu sigh wearily again.

"Yer right" he replied, tugging at the edges of the towel that still hung from his neck, admiring Yamaguchi's hair shining with the little lights on his body. "G'night, Yamaguchi-kun" he added with a smile, and the freckled man turned for a second, giving it back.

"Good night, Osamu-san" he replied, and returned his attention to his work, hearing Osamu leave the kitchen and his door closing seconds later. An amused smile appeared on his lips, and a slight blush painted his cheeks.

Maybe he was being stupid. Maybe he was being delusional over things that were too impossible, or maybe it was just Yamaguchi being Yamaguchi. But he felt it, and he was sure the older one had too. His freckles gleamed for a split second, just as Osamu rested his face on his shoulder and hugged his waist.

_Something inside the Earth had changed._

When he finished his work, he dried his hands and sighed, unable to erase that smile from his lips, and that way he entered the bathroom. It took him less than an hour to take a bath, time that he used to think about the way things would happen from that moment on. The trains he would take, the time he would have to wake up to get to college on time, how much he should have to endure living with Osamu Miya without jumping into his arms and kissing him passionately like each and every dream he had with him throughout his life... His tired gaze rested on his reflection, finding the slight blush that had not yet disappeared from his face, and he brought a hand to his forehead, feeling the heat of his head before sighing for the last time, and left the bathroom, shutting himself in his room, falling asleep again as soon as he laid his head on the pillow.

The next morning, as he had been waiting for him most of the night, the first thing his eyes found in the kitchen was Osamu Miya preparing breakfast. Yamaguchi smiled, yawning one last time before sitting down at the table, and minutes later the older one served the food in front of him, with a warm smile and somewhat messy hair.

"G'morning, Yamaguchi-kun" greeted him when his eyes met those of the freckled man, who imitated his smile and chose to start eating, but not before thanking Osamu for the food, and the black-haired man did the same.

"I think Yamaguchi is too long" said the younger after trying a couple of bites. Osamu looked up at him, feeling that looking at Yamaguchi when he spoke was something he couldn't help himself, and it wasn't pure politeness and courtesy. Of course not. "Besides, I'm calling you by your name, even if it's to differentiate you from Atsumu-san. I think you should do the same..." described, and his face reddened when he understood what he said, completely unconscious, and he didn't take long to search to fix what he said. "I mean... If you want .."

And Osamu smiled. " _Tadashi_..." he uttered, and Yamaguchi's spine vibrated from the first to the last vertebra. Osamu blushed, but couldn't help but smile when the face of the named reddened even more, the idea that, his red face next to his freckles, looked like a watermelon settling in his mind. "Tadashi, Tadashi... _Dashi_... **_How about Dashi-kun?_** "

Seconds of silence from Yamaguchi followed his blush and, although it hadn't dissipated, Yamaguchi nodded, not taking his gaze from his plate. Osamu smiled victoriously, and finished his breakfast, this time deciding not to twist his arm when it came to cleaning and washing everything. Yamaguchi ended up admiring the older man's back as he took care of everything, and was surprised when he disappeared from his sight after finishing his work, and returned a couple of minutes later, with his apron on, his hair neat and combed, and a garment in his hands, handing it to Yamaguchi.

"Yer apron" he told him, and Tadashi processed the information for an instant before taking the garment and opening it, revealing the same apron Osamu was wearing, only slightly larger. "Yer gonna help me in the store, right?" He added, to which Yamaguchi looked at him over the garment, smiles on both faces. And he nodded.

The rest of the day Osamu spent it in teaching Tadashi about the operation of the store, from how to use the cash register to the different products and foods they sold, and also introduced him to Eri and Hideo, his two employees that Osamu met a couple of years ago and had captivated the older with their endless hunger for cooking. Yamaguchi also learned that the store still lacked a couple of things to put in place, and his first official job was to clean the store, even if it wasn't completely dirty. Although Tadashi used to clean his apartment without getting tired, after a couple of hours cleaning every corner of the place he felt like he was dying, and when he managed to pay attention to both Osamu and the brothers, they were saying goodbye to each other, and Tadashi noticed that day left the earth to give way to night.

"Good night, Yamaguchi-san" the brothers greeted with a small smile, and they left the store waving with their hands. Yamaguchi was quick to follow suit, and turned to Osamu when they were completely alone.

"Can ya close? I'll go upstairs to make dinner" he asked, to which Yamaguchi nodded with a smile. Osamu took off his apron and hung it over his shoulder, and looked at Yamaguchi one last time before standing back. "See you upstairs" he added.

Yamaguchi nodded again, and Osamu disappeared. He took off his apron before sighing, and grabbed his keys before approaching the door, twisting the piece of metal to lock the lock. When everything was ready he smiled, and looked up outward.

_And a pair of golden eyes were staring at him._

Yamaguchi shuddered, pulling the keys from inside the lock, and noticed that pair of eyes moved at the speed of light to the keys, surprise building on his face before turning his eyes to Yamaguchi's, letting him see to the freckled, in the opacity of those eyes that deserved to shine, pain. The purest and most palpable of pain. It didn't take long for Tadashi to feel a powerful, distressing melancholy fill every corner of his body, and he couldn't help feeling even worse when that pair of eyes disappeared under the moonlight.

With words in his mouth and the sadness in his throat, he finished turning off all the lights in the store, and took one last look at the door before disappearing up the stairs to Osamu's apartment, who received him with a smile, which disappeared when the youngest let see his slightly moistened eyes fill with tears, and approached him, wrapping him in a hug so he could cry on his shoulder. He didn't dare to ask anything, much less make a move other than that of his hand stroking his head. Yamaguchi was crying on his shoulder, perhaps disconsolately, and although he was dying to ask what happened, he could only comfort him silently.

**_Because that's what friends did._ **

Yamaguchi finished crying when his body lost all strength over the elder's shoulder, and Osamu discovered that he had fallen asleep completely. He smiled, and lifted Yamaguchi to take him to his room, feeling that the first night that Yamaguchi had slept there was repeating itself once more, and that, again, Osamu felt that he could become addicted to those kinds of little details.

**_Osamu was going to become addicted to the presence of the Yamaguchi._ **

_And that meant something was about to change._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DON'T YOU LOVE IT WHEN THIS HAPPENS omg I'm still not used to author's notes so I barely even say anything here lol, but what I do need to say is that both Eri and Hideo are half-canon characters from the manga (or at least official art) because they're someone's siblings *wink wink*  
> Anyways, this is practically the last chapter when everything is okay because after this comes DEATH DESTRUCTION AND DESPAIR so yes, bye bye fluff (?)


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